[PAA-Discuss] Do We Fear the "S" Word but Like the Reality?

[Ron and Kris Graham]

http://jobsanger.blogspot.com/2010/10/do-we-fear-s-word-but-like-reality.htm
l?utm_source=feedburner
<http://jobsanger.blogspot.com/2010/10/do-we-fear-s-word-but-like-reality.ht
ml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2Flha
v+%28jobsanger%29>
&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2Flhav+%28jobsanger%29

 


Tuesday, October 12, 2010


Do
<http://jobsanger.blogspot.com/2010/10/do-we-fear-s-word-but-like-reality.ht
ml>  We Fear The "S" Word But Like The Reality? 


 

There is little doubt that for most Americans calling them a socialist would
be about the worst thing they could be called.  Americans seem convinced
that having a socialist system of economics (and it is an economic system -
not a type of government) would be against everything America stands for.
They feel this way because the word has been demonized for decades in this
country by right-wingers and corporate interests.

 

Most Americans equate socialism to communism (a different economic system)
and dictatorship (a type of government). The truth is that socialism has
little to do with either one.   I don't think most Americans even know what
socialism is.   To them it is just an evil lurking in the shadows waiting to
steal our freedom, something akin to slavery or tyranny.

 

But there is an interesting survey that tends to show we, as Americans, may
be more afraid of the word than the reality.   There's no doubt Americans
are afraid of the word, but the
<http://www.people.hbs.edu/mnorton/norton%20ariely%20in%20press.pdf>  survey
by Michael I. Norton of the Harvard Business School and Dan Ariely of Duke
University shows that a huge majority of Americans may actually think
socialism produces a fairer and better result than our own
biased-toward-the-rich capitalist system.

 

Their survey, which included a large group of 5,522 American citizens,
showed a couple of very interesting things.   The first is that most
Americans don't realize just how out-of-whack the distribution of wealth is
in America.   Survey respondents believed that the richest 20% of Americans
controlled about 59% of the country's wealth.   The truth is much worse.
In 2005, the richest 20% actually controlled about 84% of the wealth in
America (and that percentage has undoubtably grown in the last five years).

 

The authors of the survey then presented the respondents with three unmarked
pie charts.   The first showed an even 20% of wealth for each fifth of the
population.   The second showed the distribution of wealth in the United
States.   The third showed the distribution of wealth in Sweden (definitely
a socialist country, where the richest 20% controls 36% of the country's
wealth).   They were asked to choose which pie chart showed the most
appropriate (fairest) distribution of wealth.   Here are the results:

 

WHEN ASKED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN ALL 3 CHART.

United States...............10%

Equal portions...............43%

Sweden...............47%

 

WHEN ASKED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN EQUAL AND SWEDISH CHARTS.

Equal...............49%

Sweden...............51%

 

WHEN ASKED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN EQUAL AND US CHARTS.

Equal...............77%

United States...............23%

 

WHEN ASKED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN US AND SWEDISH CHARTS.

United States...............8%

Sweden...............92%

 

It is interesting that a small majority of Americans chose the Swedish
distribution of wealth over an exactly equal distribution of wealth.   They
were quite willing to accept that there will be some inequality in an
economic system and thought the Swedish (socialist) distribution of wealth
was the best possible outcome.   But virtually none (8%) of the respondents
thought the distribution of wealth created in the United States was fair or
appropriate.

 

And even more amazing is that the preference for the Swedish distribution of
wealth over the U.S. distribution of wealth cut across gender, party and
income lines.   Here is that breakdown:

 

PREFERRED THE SWEDISH (SOCIALIST) DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH

Women...............92.7%

Men...............90.6%

Democratic voters...............93.5%

Republican voters...............90.2%

Make under $50,000...............92.1%

Make $50,000-$100,000...............91.7%

Make over $100,000...............89.1%

 

These lop-sided figures bring into question the supposed American hatred of
socialism.   It turns out that at least 90% of Americans would prefer the
distribution of wealth created by a socialist system to the distribution our
own capitalist system has created.   They may be afraid of the word
"socialism", but they believe the results of socialism are better -- as long
as you don't use the "S" word to describe it.   In other words, years of
propaganda and scare tactics have frightened them into accepting a system
they know is fair only for the richest few Americans.

 

Now I know that some will be screaming that socialism involves "income
redistribution" -- another term Americans have been convinced is a bad
thing.   But the truth is that there is income redistribution in all
economic systems.   In our form of rich-biased capitalism, that
redistribution is to the richest citizens in the country from everyone else.
In a socialism, the redistribution is much fairer and more even.

 

Americans are really socialists at heart and believe in a fairer system of
wealth distribution.   They have just been convinced by decades of
propaganda to vote against the best interests of themselves and their fellow
citizens, and that's just sad.

 

Posted by Ted McLaughlin at
<http://jobsanger.blogspot.com/2010/10/do-we-fear-s-word-but-like-reality.ht
ml> 12:06 AM 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://paa-tx.org/pipermail/discuss_paa-tx.org/attachments/20101012/c4960cb1/attachment.htm>