From Pine View Farm

Red Scare Redux 0

At the Idaho State Journal, retired professor Wayne Schow takes issue with Doyle Beck’s hyperventilating over a little bit of social safety netting. He explains that democratic socialism and Soviet style communism are not, in fact, the same thing, a distinction of which methinks many Americans are similarly unaware (as many seem also unaware of the concept of the “common good”).

Here’s a bit from his essay; follow the link for the rest.

Let’s make sure we’re talking about the same thing. Socialism is not communism, which many confused Americans, hyperventilating, assume. Socialist governments do not take over the means of production. The socialist countries of northern Europe do provide more programs like social security, universal health care, free childcare, free higher education, et cetera — and they tax more heavily to pay for such benefits. But they are democratic and have market economies.

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