Rental needs(thanks W, now Sect 8 Welfare recipients can't afford to move next store)

Baltimore Sun ^ | July 5, 2005

[justshutupandtakeit]

Your "common sense" definition is NOT an valid definition. Most of those things you associate there with socialism predates it and are not necessarily socialist. Do not confuse Welfarism with Socialism.

According to the Dictionary of Economics Socialism is "A collective system of ownership and operation of the means of production, usually by the government....Socialism at one time referred to the ideas of certain social reformers who were called Christian Socialists and utopian socialists, some of whom established colonies in America based on principles of communism in various forms." See Robert Owen for example. Loose use of words limit discussion and increase confusion. Communism and socialism are often confused in common parlance.

Flood control is certainly not socialist nor is reforestation. Both are responses to dangers and damage done to the lives and property of those who did not cause the problem. If trees two thousand miles away are cut and floods result which wash away your house (this happened in the Mississippi floods of 1927) why should YOU have those costs imposed upon you? Some problems are the result of actions never even observed by those they affect. External economies and diseconomies must be dealt with and that is a role government is designed to play.

If the Socialist Party platform called for electricity does that mean electricity is socialist? I don't think so.

Life in a society imposes costs upon its members which they may resent or vehmently oppose but they are no less real.

[Still Thinking]

But what is more disturbing is the supposed "conservatives" acting like bleeding heart liberals. Socialism is never the answer. In no way has it ever been successful.

I know. I'm inclined to feel the same way, but living in an increasingly socialist environment was bound to have it's effect. Take for example the fact that 2005 "conservatives" are roughly the political equivalent of Jack Kennedy, and "progressives" would have been considered Commies then. In some ways the country is becoming more conservative/libertarian, but there is a lot of lost ground to make up and I don't know if it can actually be done.

[flaglady47]

so how does it "feel" to argue based on emotion and not fact. You Socialist. There are many enemies in the conservative circle and I'm betting you are one.

It is NOT the governments job to take care of the people.

Talk to me when you are old, and hopefully broke, so that you might have a different perspective on the matter. Such as having medical costs eat up all your money. Until then, you will have no empathy whatsoever. We'll talk then, as I'm wasting my breath on you now.

[Jefferson1964]

I live in Dallas Texas and purchased a HUD home about a year ago that had been previously rented as Section 8 for the last two years. The house was torn up but is why i recieved a deal on the home. Since my wife and child have lived there almost every neighbor on the block has come and told us about the cops being at the home almost every day, loud parties all night long, people standing out front of the home drinking and making comments to neighbors walking around the block, cars racing up/down the street. I had not even been living there 2 weeks when the police showed up with a warrant for a previous occupant. The neighbors have all expressed gratitude that we moved in and returned the neighborhood to a normal area that is quiet and feels safe again. Its something that one house with one family can destroy a whole neighborhood, its a real shame.......