"A theory or system of social reform which contemplates a complete reconstruction of society, with a more just and equitable distribution of property and labor."
This definition used two words which we, as U.S. citizens, always like to equate with America: just, as in justice, and equitable, as in equal. So what's wrong with a system that wants things to be fair and equal? There's a lot wrong with it.
In theory socialism is just fine and dandy. Everybody gets a fair share of the money and food and everybody is happy, right?
Wrong.
First of all, how do you distribute the wealth and the food? You can't have grocery stores and banks as we know it because everybody is getting the same amount so the government has to establish stores and banks to dispense the money and food. Well that means the government has to hire workers and set up boards and commissions to handle the disbursement of food and money not to mention the research that goes into deciding exactly how much food and money each person should get. Soon the government is a huge bureaucracy with thousands upon thousands of employees. The government starts to consume so much money that there is little left over to dispense to the people. Then add in corruption because in any bureaucracy that is so large it is going to be easy to steal and pilfer. Socialism puts a small number of people in charge of everything from money to healthcare. That's a lot of power for them to wield and the temptation to use it to further themselves is just too great. The government soon breaks down and is not able to support itself any longer.
So why did I say that America was heading in this direction? First of all remember that the top 50% of wage earners pay 96% of the taxes in our country. Now think about all the social spending our government does such as welfare, farm aid, Medicare and Medicaid and now prescription drugs. That means that the richest 50% of our citizens are paying for the poorest 50% to live. Now you're going to ask, "Shouldn't the rich pay more taxes?" No, they shouldn't and it would be better for everybody if they didn't.
If we were to cut the taxes for the top 50% and spread the amount of tax dollars needed across the whole population we would end up with a hug chunk of consumers with extra money in their pockets. Good things happen when American consumers have money in their pockets.
For the sake of this discussion lets imagine that all these consumers spend their extra money on an air conditioner for their home. With the sudden rise in air conditioner sales manufacturers are going to have to start making more units and shipping them to the stores. The shipping companies are going to have to hire more drivers and buy more trucks to handle the additional work load not to mention hire even more maintenance workers to make sure the trucks keep running. The air conditioner outlets will have to hire more salesmen to handle the increase of customers and installers will have to expand their businesses to keep up with the demand.
See how that goes? Its called trickle down economics, and it works. Soon a larger percentage of the population which doesn't need government aid like welfare because they will be working. That means our federal government has to spend less on social spending and can either cut taxes or spend it in other places where we need it more, like education or defense (which will create more jobs in and of itself, more money in these areas would mean more teachers or more soldiers).
These are the ideals that our country was based on. Our citizens are supposed to be independent and self-sufficient. What motivation can the people on government assistance have to become independent when we're handing them money?
Look at the farmers. There are not many farmers left who do not accept some sort of government aid. The U.S. Government is essentially bankrolling the agricultural industry in this nation and doing a great disservice to our farmers, though the farmers don't realize it. We're not teaching these farmers to become more efficient businessmen so that they can compete in the modern economy, we're teaching them how to take handouts so they can stay afloat. We need to let some of these farms fail. I guarantee you that, given time, some farms would go down the tubes but others would find a way to stay in business and would be stronger for because of it.
That's called capitalism.
We're never going to be able to save everybody from poverty, but handing out money is not the way to handle the situation. We need to keep people working, get them jobs. The more handouts we give the more taxes we pay. The more taxes we pay the less money we have to spend. If we spend less money then more businesses close which means less jobs.
I don't want to seem harsh, I want to help the farmers and the poor as much as the next person.
I just want to do it in a different way.