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By Dan Bowser

Recent Gazette articles have expressed different opinions on entitlements such as welfare, but what dothey call Social Security and Medicare.

One article supporting our current system claims Social Security is revenue neutral, but admits it willbecome depleted in 2034 after which it will be able to pay out 79 percent of benefits. The same articlecriticized George W. Bush for attempting to privatize Social Security. Lying politicians from both partiesused scare tactics on uninformed seniors to promote the idea President Bush is taking away their SocialSecurity.

An article titled Social Security is not an entitlement gave factual information on the benefits ofprivatized Social Security. It compared actual benefits of $18,000 to $19,000 a year to a potential of$45,000 to $50,000 per year. Many retirees living on Social Security without other sources of income liveat a poverty level. Privatized benefits could more than double their potential income.

Another writer claimed there are just as many cons as there are pros to privatizing Social Security. Thepros are obvious. I have ask some seniors what are the cons. Most said in a volatile market I would notknow how to invest my money and I may end up with nothing. I am not a financial expert, but in thissituation only the most secure options should be available such as US Treasury Bonds, low risk annuitiesor mutual funds. A continuous audit should be in place to ensure the company handling these funds dovnot create another Ponzi scheme like we now have with government handling 15 percent of our gross income.

I have heard many people make the foolish statement that you will get more out than you put in. Wouldthese same people put their lifes savings under a mattress expecting no return?

Government run health care is an issue politicians on both sides of the aisle use to snowball voters. AllDemocrats want to salvage this failed Obamacare program and would probably favor a single payersocialist system. Several Republicans oppose the new replacement plan as it will reduce Medicaid benefits. According to the Heritage Foundation the plan does not cut Medicaid it just reduces the futuregrowth.

Lets look at the history of welfare. The war on poverty began in 1964. In the 50-year period from 1964until 2014 $22 trillion has been spent to reduce poverty. Adjusted for inflation this is threetimes the cost of all U.S. military wars. Those in poverty in 1964 were 14 percent of our population and itremained 14 percent in 2014. Today government spends 16 times more, adjusting for inflation, on anti-povertyprograms than it did when the war on poverty began.

Why is the war on poverty not working? The poor have a much better life than they did 50 years ago.

They have many more amenities and financial benefits today to help entice them to stay dependent.

Many politicians want to keep them in that state so they can count on their vote. Any scare that apolitician may cut Medicaid sends Democrats on the attack. I think of an old saying (do you give a persona fish every day or do you teach them to fish). In a recent article a Democrat appears to think it is moreChrist like to give the fish every day.

One article mentioned the word Socialism. If you research the life cycle of a Democracy you will learnthat Democracies turn into socialist societies when politicians give the people financial benefits from thegovernment treasury in order to get elected. If this continues, bankruptcy is inevitable. Some say we arethe richest country in the world and we should supply health care and freebees. No other country hasbeen $20 trillion in debt indicating we are the poorest country. Our citizens are wealthy, so are theysaying the government can take our money. In a socialist society your money does belong to thegovernment.

Dan Bowser

Gastonia

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My Turn: The growth of socialism - Gaston Gazette

To the editor Socialism fails to provide the best outcomes (e.g. Venezuela) because it suppresses motivation for personal and corporate sacrifices to exceed and innovate, as individual rewards and accountability are significantly diminished. This historically reduces the number of high-quality existing and new health care professionals. Overall health care is diminished as we have observed with the Veterans Administration. Far too many cases report delayed and poor care, with little improvements made or accountability for those responsible

J.J. Sandins proposal to nationalize all health care sectors is scary. It naively trusts that anonymous big central federal government bureaucrats (Big Brother), controlling the most serious and personal aspects of our lives, know better and have our best interests in mind.

Health care is not national security. North Korea has national security while their citizens have terrible health care. Social Security is not a socialistic program; it merely returns funds to individuals who initially contributed them.

The constitutional role for the federal government is to provide for a common defense (national security), not to provide health care. Governments role is to promote free market solutions by removing regulations, taxes and to provide incentives to create a diverse health care system that benefits all, not just those economically challenged as does Obamacare.

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Socialism fails - Yakima Herald-Republic

Sen. Bernie Sanders has announced that he will challenge every single one of the side deals that Trump and Mitch McConnell cut with Republican Senators in an effort to get them to support the healthcare bill.

In a statement provided to PoliticusUSA, Sen. Sanders (I-VT) said, Today, the Senate parliamentarian made a determination that at least a dozen provisions in the disastrous Trump-McConnell health care bill are in violation of Senate rules and cannot be included in this bill without 60 votes. One of these provisions is the Buffalo Bailout that was inserted into this bill in order to secure the vote of a tiny-handful of Republican representatives from upstate New York. This is a very important ruling. What this ruling means is that side deals which benefit individual states will most likely be ruled in violation of Senate rules. As the ranking member of the Budget Committee, I will challenge any one of these state-specific provisions. We need legislation which improves the lives of people in all 50 states, not legislation which is geared to obtaining the vote of this or that Republican senator.

The Democratic Socialism of Bernie Sanders and his supporters has been a powerful force in the health care debate. Sanders was promoted to Democratic Senate leadership exactly for moments like these. He has been able to take his grassroots energy and rally people to the Democratic cause.

If Sanders does challenge all of the side deals that Trump and McConnell cut, he will get them stripped from the bill, and support for the legislation should collapse. The final nail in Trumpcares coffin might come from Bernie Sanders, as the pretend capitalist owned by Putin is about to be handed a defeat by Democratic Socialist who has worked his way to national prominence from the grassroots of Vermont.

ACA Repeal, Bernie Sanders, Bernie Sanders crushes Obamacare repeal, Obamacare repeal, Sen. Bernie Sanders

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The Mighty Hammer Of Bernie Sanders Socialism Is About To Crush Trump's Obamacare Repeal Dreams - PoliticusUSA

Socialism kills pets as well as people

By Mark Luedtke

I have little sympathy for people who advocate for socialism then get what they asked for, good and hard. Socialism invariably produces mass poverty, shortages, starvation, etc., while a handful of rulers live like kingsthere are no exceptions because there can be no exceptionsso the people who promote socialism are either stupid or evil. But I have great sympathy for the victims who resist, the children who have no say, and the pets.

Even the leftist media cant ignore the tragedy socialism inflicts on pets in Venezuela. USA Today reports, Every day on her way to work, Angela Exposito sees more abandoned dogs along the road, discarded by owners who can no longer afford to take care of them.

Exposito, who heads Fundanimalia, a nonprofit animal rescue organization, said abandoned pets have skyrocketed over the last three months as the countrys economy descends into ever-worsening chaos. Until recently, most stray dogs she saw were mutts or mixed breeds. Now she sees more purebreds, such as golden retrievers, left to forage for garbage along the Pan American Highway that passes by this industrial city of 150,000, about 50 miles west of the capital, Caracas.

This shows socialism affects not only the poor. It impoverishes the middle class, and then the rich the longer it lasts. If not stopped, even rulers will starve. Socialism collapses at a tipping point when the military realizes rulers wont be able to feed and supply them.

USA Today continues, The food shortage is so bad that the government on Sunday opened its border with neighboring Colombia for 12 hours, and thousands of Venezuelans quickly crossed into the city of Cucuta to buy rice, cornmeal, pasta, and other basic items. Venezuela has had the border closed since August as part of a crackdown on crime.

This illustrates how socialism manages to survive for a short time by relying on capitalists. Soviet rulers begged for food from capitalist countries to feed their starving masses. Socialist rulers imitate the structure of production in capitalist countries. Compassionate capitalists enable socialism to limp along, destroying lives and the environment. Environmentalists might want to note how filthy socialist countries are compared to capitalist ones.

But socialism creates more horrors for pets than being abandoned, struck by cars, starved, or killed by other feral pets. The mayor of one Caracas district told USA Today, People are hunting dogs and cats in the streets, and pigeons in the plazas to eat.

The article continues, The unrest mounts as the country faces continuing shortages of essential food, medicine, and toiletries. All the bakeries here in La Victoria, 55 miles southwest of Caracas, stopped producing bread last week because there is no flour.

People who cant feed themselves cant feed their pets.

You dont have to have a Ph.D. in international cultures to recognize rich, capitalist countries tend to treat pets, animals, and the environment better than poor, socialist countries. Venezuela provides an excellent, yet terrible, case study because it shows a before and after picture of the same culture. When Venezuela was more capitalist, pets thrived. Now that socialism reigns, theyre hunted for food.

Whats lost in todays economic conversation is a discussion of wealth creation. Our rulers and their propagandists have a socialist obsession with jobs, but economies arent about producing jobs. Theyre about producing wealth. That means meeting the demands of consumers. In a capitalist society, consumers are king. Capitalism empowered billions of people to rise above poverty by creating wealth. Jobs are a byproduct of wealth creation, not a cause of it.

Pet ownership is another byproduct of wealth creation. Even in China, where eating dogs has long been culturally acceptable, that tradition is going away as capitalists create wealth there.

Because socialism destroys wealth, it also destroys pet ownership.

And since were at the height of the bubble, Michigan just set a pet adoption record. Im sure the same is true across the country, but when the crash hits, people will abandon their pets here like in Venezuela.

Every time you see that gut-wrenching Sarah McLachlan commercial, you can blame government for interfering in our economy. If we had a free economy, because we would be wealthier, few would abandon their pets, and those would be quickly adopted.

If youre a pet lover, you have to be against socialism.

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Socialism ills - Dayton City Paper

Puebla, Mexico, July 19, 2017 (venezuelanalysis.com) The majority of Venezuelans believe in a socialist economy, but want the government to be more efficient and promote private investment, a top pollster said Wednesday.

Most [Venezuelans] believe in a strong, vigorous state [to] establish clear laws for the market, said Oscar Schemel, the head of polling agency Hinterlaces.

He pointed to the latest Hinterlaces poll, which asked participants if the best thing for Venezuela is a socialist economic model of production, where various forms of private property exist.

While three out of four Venezuelans agreed with this statement, 24 percent disagreed, while 1 percent were unsure.

Schemel said the data shows Venezuelans want a socialist state with private investment and a mixed economy. He added that Venezuelans believe the state "should be a referee that directs investment.

"Sixty one percent of the population affirms that the economy must be led by the state, 86 percent think that the government should promote private investment, he said.

The comments were made during a speech to a meeting of local business leaders in Caracas. The topic of the meeting was how to promote a post-oil economy.

Venezuelas President Nicolas Maduro has long had a terse relationship with Venezuelan business leaders, though Schemel argued voters want dialogue.

Seventy eight percent consider that the government's dialogue with businesspeople is more important than with the opposition, and 63 percent distrust the opposition, he said.

Schemels figures were based on new polling data from Hinterlaces, which asked over 1,500 Venezuelans for their views on the state of the economy.

While the majority of Venezuelans said they support socialism, 63 percent of respondents said the government needs to become more productive and efficient. Thirty two percent of participants said the current model should change.

In another question looking at the fate of state oil firm PDVSA, 74 percent of respondents said they would oppose any proposal to privatise the company. Twenty three percent said they would support such a proposal. Similar results were found for questions dealing with other state enterprises. When asked whether the electricity grid should be privatised, 32 percent of respondents agreed, while 67 percent said they would oppose such a measure. Sixty nine said they would oppose privatising state telecommunications giant CANTV, while 30 percent would be in support.

Published on Jul 19th 2017 at 3.05pm

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75% of Venezuelans Support Socialism: Poll - Venezuelanalysis.com