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Conservatives screamed socialism for decades whenever a national health care plan was proposed. Now that we have one, they want to put their names on it, but dont have the courage to make the needed improvements.

It is good to remember that all social programs underwent similar struggles Social Security, Medicaid, Food Stamps, the G.I. Bill. Those programs, like the ACA, are now valued parts of our American culture. Here are a few more of those hard-fought-for government socialist programs we Americans now take for granted.

A sampling of current Government social programs:

Head Start

Social Security Disability

Social Security Retirement and Survivors Benefits

Supplemental Security Income (SSI)

Medicare Welfare (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or T.A.N.F.)

Veterans benefits

Pell Grants

Unemployment Insurance

Government Subsidized Housing

Home Mortgage Interest Deduction

Hope and Lifetime Learning Tax Credits

Child and Dependent Care Tax Credits

Education savings accounts (Education I.R.A.s)

Earned-income tax credits

Employer subsidized health insurance

Employer subsidized retirement benefits

Federal student loans

I believe we will have a good national health care program one day, but only if our representatives remain focused on the primary objective, which is affordable health care for all of us citizens. It will, however, require them to spend less time on disingenuous posturing for the benefit of the wealthy and more time doing the job we pay them for. They need to know, they either get er done, or we will fire them as we would any inept employee.

Harry Barnes

East Meredith

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In Your Opinion: Government programs shouldn't be criticized for 'socialism' - Oneonta Daily Star

If I hear one more person compare Britain under a Labour Government to living in Venezuela I might to fly to Caracas and throw myself off Parque Central Torre Oeste.

Whichever way you voted during the EU referendum OR the General Election, youre probably tired of being labeled, and are sick to death of readingabsurd clichs.

Lazy baseless arguments posted over and over and over again on Facebook dont make thepoint more valid, but they do create division.

Both the right-wing tabloid press and the left-wing Twiterati, are both guilty of churning out labels faster than a Next Sale.

These labels, cliches and baseless arguments only serve to create and fuel divisions, generate some twitter, and sell more newspapers. Making everyone angry in the process.

Champaign socialist, racist, bigot, leftie luvvie, Remoaner, Brexitard, fascist, Tory, etc, etc. The list goes on.

The people like us mentality has truly taken hold in the UK. Such is the vitriol of reporting, Grandparents and Grandchildren can barely look each other in the eye. They should bediscussing their differing perspectives, or even what unites them, over a happy Sunday Roast with a glass of red wine and a smile.

But hey, stay angry. Social media sites serve up content you all ready agree with, so why would you bother engaging in any dialogue with the other side?

Applying labels to people is both dangerous and ignorant.

Take the recent Labour General Election vote for instance. According to YouGov, 44% of voters in their 40s opted for Corbyn, compared to 39 per cent who voted for the May.

45 per cent of people in full time work voted for Labour, compared to 39 per cent who backed the Tories. Similar results were recorded for part time workers too.

Its also worth observing the YouGov chart below that shows the more educated were more likely to vote Labour.

Whilst there is an age bias, this certainly doesnt suggest that Labour voters are work-shy 18-year-old under-grads with no understanding of the world.

Political norms have been turned on theirheads. What we actually witnessed was large proportions of educated and trained working people turning out to vote for more socialist policies, and back demand-side economics (i.e. investing in future workforce and infrastructure to kickstart our economy).

Its no secret that many of our daily newspapers are (and increasingly) right-wing. As expected, the right-wing press has began demonising socialism (even more) without mercy, but without really asking why so much of working Britain backed a move toward a more socialist Government.

Despite what some newspapers would have you believe (or even Hollywood during the past four decades), Democratic Socialism is not the same as Communism. Britain, like many European countries, is a very socialist country already. But the right-wing press have done an amazing job at making the word socialism dirty.

What many people dont appreciate is that many of the Great British foundationsthat we take for granted are democratic socialist principles:

When you blindly attack socialism or Comrade Corbyn and parrot the claim that Britain under him would be akin to living in Venezuela, perhaps remind yourself that Britain has embraced socialism throughout the last century.

You never know, you may realise that a little part of you is a socialist (eeek).

The socialist elements of our life are being slowly eroded away from under our noses. No wonder everybody complains about our population becoming increasingly self-serving or selfish.

I like to think its possible forpersonal political views to straddle a number of political landscapes,depending on the issue, but if you want to call me a socialist for valuing state schools, the NHS, and my Sunday stroll, then go ahead.

However, the truth is, you shouldnt have to choose socialism or capitalism. Socialism and capitalism can work side-by-side. Do you know why? Because thats exactly how the UK operates now, and has always operated. Life orpolitics shouldnt be polarized. The real trick is getting the balance right. Why do we need to be at one extreme or the other?

OK, its true that thelikelihood of voting Conservative increased with age in the last General Election, but is it all to do with wealth, as tradition dictates, or something much deeper?

Perhaps older people are more susceptible to traditional right-wing fear tactics, or maybe they are more controlled by the newspaper they read (considering five of the largest selling newspapers are staunchly right-wing, whilst young people dont buy newspapers anymore)?

In reality, due to technological advances, booming populations and higher social mobility, the older generation has seen the world change more rapidly than any generation on Earth before them. Its no surprise that the message of stability or taking back control is a popular one.

On the other side, the younger or working generation could be the first to have comparatively lower living standards than their parents, working longer, and with small/no pensions. Why would they want to back policies like Brexit or austerity when it will undoubtedly make them poorer in the short term (for another decade at least).

Whichever waythe divide manifests itself, surelyyoung and old are united by more than divides them. I have a hunch that most people care about the same things, but believe in different ways of protecting those things. The NHS is a great example of something many Brexit voters sought to protect, despite signing itspotential death warrant.

Both generations can see the NHS crumbling in front of their eyes.

Both generations witness modern-day monopolies in the form of globalised corporations paying little or no tax towards the infrastructure and services they use and exploit. Whilst strugglinglocal business diligently pay their contribution.

People from both generations are concerned about our crumbling infrastructure and limited resources. They all know that the lack of investment in infrastructure, services and people will come back to bite us.

Even if you hold the view thatCorbyn bribed students with the promiseof eliminating their student debt, ask yourself the following; given the proven benefits of education (better prospects, better health, lower birth rates, higher productivity, etc) is it right that a student should be saddled with 50k debt before they even start work? Should education only be available to the wealthy? Even without the burden of tuition fees, students must still find enough money to pay for rent, bills, food, study equipment, etc.

Perhaps, just perhaps, if more people realised some of the things they hold dear aresocialist ideals, they might back the policies a little more without fear of becoming Venezuela.

Some of the daily newspapers have more than tainted the word socialism. Theyve convinced you that socialism means freeloading students rioting around London, demanding the Worlds wealth is shared out. Theyve tricked you into believing socialism meansspending money from the Magic Money Treeor taking money from your piggy bank that isnt there (ignoring demand side economics, the Paradox of Thrift, or the multiplier effect i.e. investing in your country will pay you back with interest). Theyve conned you into thinking socialism means Venezuela.

Lets take the word back and own it. You dont have to be a full blown socialist to support a little more socialism.

Even if you still think socialism is a dirty word, a few things arecertain: re-nationalising the awful private railway system, ensuring water companies invest in the infrastructure we originally paid for, or making corporations pay their share of tax, will turn Britain into Venezuela no more than the Tory winter-fuel payment cap will turn the UK into Bahrain.

Its a lazy argument.

More worrying is the staggering decline in independent, investigative journalism. It costs a lot to produce, so many publications facing an uncertain future can no longer fund it.

With nobody to hold the rich and powerful to account, or report on the issues that don't fit with the mainstream 'narrative', your help is needed.

You can help support free, independent journalism for as little as 50p. Every penny we collect from donations supports vital investigative journalism.

Follow this link:
You're a Dirty Socialist and you don't even realise it - The London Economic

NewsBusters (press release) (blog)

MSNBC Runs Segment on Venezuelan Crisis, Refuses to Mention Socialism NewsBusters (press release) (blog) On Monday morning, Hallie Jackson ran a segment on MSNBC Live devoted to investigating the ills of Venezuela amid growing tensions in the South American country. For the entirety of the segment, neither the host nor her guest even mentioned the ...

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MSNBC Runs Segment on Venezuelan Crisis, Refuses to Mention Socialism - NewsBusters (press release) (blog)

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Young people like me who question socialism are being silenced - The Independent

It was 1881, and German chancellor Otto von Bismarck had a serious socialist problem. Hed passed the Anti-Socialist Law of 1878, which banned Social Democratic meetings, associations and newspapers, but he couldnt remove the party outright from the Reichstag. The socialists still found favor with too many constituents.

The political climate of the era was a result of German unification, the period stretching across the 19th century and culminating in 1871, when 26 small states, principalities, duchies and territories formed the German Republic. But thanks to the German constitution, Bismarck didnt have to worry about pleasing the populace; his chancellorship was approved solely by Wilhelm I. But with the European economy in free fall, a nearly successful assassination attempt on the kaiser, and a short-lived but bloody socialist uprising in France, Bismarck was determined to undermine a party that he saw as a danger to the volatile new nation state. So the Iron Chancellor came up with a masterful plan: beat the socialists at their own game by offering health insurance to the working class.

That was a calculation, says historian Jonathan Steinberg, the author of Bismarck: A Life. It had nothing to do with social welfare. He just wanted some kind of bribery to get social democratic voters to abandon their party.

Bismarck didnt care what the programKrankenversicherungsgesetzwas called or how it was described, as long as citizens knew that the statehis statecoined the idea. Call it socialism or whatever you like, Bismarck said during the 1881 Reichstag public policy and budget debates. It is the same to me.

So in 1883, with the passage of the Health Insurance Law, Bismarck made Germany into a welfare stateall to stymie the socialists. The law was the first national system in the world, Steinberg says. Both employers and employees paid into insurance funds, and the German government verified workers enrollment by comparing employer records with fund membership lists, threatening employers of uninsured workers with fines.

Over the next several decades, the initial law would be expanded with accident insurance (1884), disability insurance (1889) and unemployment insurance (1927)and before long, the rest of Europe had taken note of Germanys program. (Great Britain, for example, went in a different direction; its health care laws stipulated treatment be financed by the government through taxes.)

Bismarcks insurance scheme wasnt an entirely original idea. European governments had implemented public health measures since the 14th century, when the Italian city-states took measures to control the spread of bubonic plague through quarantines. And community organized health insurance groupscalled mutual societies or sick fundsappeared around the same time in certain professions. Miners in Bohemia, for example, had Knappschaftskassen, whose members paid into a common pot. The money went towards hospitals and the care of widows and orphans of miners killed in work accidents. The idea only grew in popularity during the Industrial Revolution, which dramatically reshaped the workforce. By the time Bismarck got around to his proposal five centuries later, 25 to 30 percent of workers in northwest Europe had sickness funds.

Factory work harmed worker health. There was a demand for healthcare that they needed to finance, says John Murray, an economist at Rhodes College and the author of Origins of American Health Insurance: A History of Industrial Sickness Funds. But a key part of the Industrial Revolution thats overlooked is that once workers got paid in cash once a week or every few weeks, they had cash that could be spent on what we would call health insurance.

In other words, the availability of currency in densely populated cities made it logistically much easier to organize sickness funds. Farmers and workers like domestic servants were often paid with the goods they produced or in room and board rather than with cash, which made paying into a sickness fund much more complicated.

Those hurdles in the way of universal coverage remained unsolved under Bismarcks law. Anyone who earned a living through in-kind compensation (like farmers) werent required to join the insurance groups. But as the population grew in cities, coverage boomed. In 1885, the enrollment was 4.3 million Germans; by 1913, that number had jumped to 13.6 million. And this came with a number of surprising repercussions.

In the 19th century, Germany had been one of Europes largest labor exporters, with more than 1 million leaving the country between 1851 and 1860 alone. Most made the U.S. their destination. At the time, the combined effects of industrialization and the war against France had heightened a new sensitivity to the consequences of migration, both in economic and military terms, writes economic historian David Khoudour-Castras. By providing workers with government-mandated health insurancesomething they couldnt find anywhere elseGermany made itself more appealing to its citizens. Emigration decreased dramatically in the years leading up to World War I, in part because workers could take sick days if they stayed in Germany.

Meanwhile, the United States only started organizing mutual funds in the 1870s, and workers compensation in industrial accidents was limited before World War I. It wasnt until the Social Security Act of 1935 that the federal government got involved in a meaningful way, and even then most health insurance was employment-based, not unlike the Bismarck system but without the government mandates. As Khoudour-Castras writes, The level of protection of American workers against the main threats was very low before the Great Depression and virtually nonexistent before World War I. By contrast, most German workers were covered by social insurance mechanisms by 1913.

As for the German economy, it did grow in the decades after Bismarcks law passed; whether that was a direct response to the increasing number of people covered by insurance is hard to say. Yes, there was a correlation, but its not clear to me whether the growth caused greater insurance coverage or the other way around, Murray says. He adds that part of the benefit to the economy and the government was that with insurance, workers who fell sick were less likely to fall into poverty and strain the governments poor law institutions.

But did Bismarcks new insurance actually improve worker health? According to economists Stefan Bauernschuster, Anastasia Driva and Erik Hornung, it did. Between 1884 and the end of the century, blue collar worker mortality rates fell 8.9 percent, they write in a recent study. Surprisingly, the insurance was able to reduce infectious disease mortality in the absence of effective medication for many of the prevailing infectious diseases.

The German model evolved over the 20th century, but remained effective and popular. When the system was exported to the Netherlands, Belgium and France during World War II, each of the countries kept the model, despite the fact that it was imposed under Nazi occupation.

All told, Bismarcks system was a massive successexcept in one respect. His goal to keep the Social Democratic Party out of power utterly failed. The vote for the Social Democratic Party went up and by 1912 they were the biggest party in the Reichstag, Steinberg says. Perhaps fortunately for Bismarck, he wasnt around to see their rise. He died in 1898 without another chance to remove the socialists from power.

That Bismarck was able to create the system at all is thanks to a series of unlikely events, Steinberg says. After all, Bismarck only remained in power long enough to establish the law because of the longevity of Wilhelm Iwho survived multiple assassination attempts and lived to be 90 in a period when the life expectancy was around 40. If the kaiser had died sooner, his heir wouldve immediately replaced Bismarck, probably with a less conservative chancellor, and who knows what wouldve happened with the healthcare law.

[The insurance law] was manipulative, clever, worked well, and left a great inheritance, Steinberg says. But I think Bismarck never cared much that he was the founder of the welfare state in Germany.

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Bismarck Tried to End Socialism's GripBy Offering Government Healthcare - Smithsonian