RE: Antelope22 Apr 2020 11:33
So... what do you mean by socialism? Hitler's National Socialist Party (right wing)? Modern N Korea (left wing)? Mao's China (left)? Modern Russia (mostly right)? Modern China (Hybrid left with hard capitalism)? The Scandianavian countries (Democratic socialism)? America (corporate socialism where the tax payer subsidises corporates and the very wealthy)?
People chuck these words about with an air of finality and knowledge when they simply haven't thought about what they're talking about. What is socialism? What is it in the UK? (a form of democratic socialism - US style corp tax evasion but at the same time, the NHS, which is pure socialism)
Is capitalism contrary to socialism? Or is the former an economic model and the later a system of government?
What is socialism? Any country that uses taxpayer's money to provide or subsidise public common services and/or goods. NHS. Public transport. The French/German rail networks. American corporate subsidies and protectionism in the name of preserving jobs. Free health care such as the NHS. Free education, to university level in Scotland. And doing all these things with public money as opposed to relying on private companies to do them in a completely unregulated free market, which is the opposite of socialism.
If wanting good healthcare for all, easy access to education for all, employment and public standards to ensure minimum rights and some protection from exploitation is being a socialist then I am one. And if you support any of these things, so are you. It's merely a question of degree, and the spectrum ranges from nazi fascism right through to N Korea.