Why is socialism viewed as so dirty in America?

Question

Americans in general, American corporations in particular, view trade unions, workers movements or any other form of socialist movement with such suspicion and general distaste that it is quite hard to fathom why?
Why should the ordinary worker not be given a voice?
Because they should work harder to achieve more is the standard reply.
This arrogance is overwhelming, most people who live below the poverty line work 10 times harder than the people with a voice but are then told this, what a sham.

Answer 1

If you have ever lived under socialism and now live under capitalism you would not ask that question.

Answer 2

I remember the 70's and early 80's when the unions ruled the roost. They destroyed many of our traditional industries (not Thatcher as many of your lecturers will try to tell you) with strike after strike and ridiculous pay rise demands. The private sector cannot work like a democracy. That is one of the reasons that the public sector is so inefficient, that, and the fact that they have no competition. When you say, "why shouldn't the ordinary worker be given a say"? A say in what? It is the job of the Directors and managers to run the company, because they are responsible for that. It would be a nightmare if you tried to turn the running of a company in a bureaucratic talking shop.

In any event, Socialism is the politics of envy, and doesn't even believe in Capitalism. The Americans have got it right, that is why they are so successful.

Answer 3

It does sadly seem that many Americans view socialism (and so anything left of the centre) as Communism. Just look at some of the responses here. Now I havent seen the NHS in britain mass murder many people as one person said socialism does (not intentionally anyway ;-)

It does seem that the common view in America when they think of socialism is to think of the extreme example, an example also fuelled by Cold War properganda.

(Incidently, Id like to say that i consider myself a centrist libertarian. That is i believe in order for a clountry to be its most successful, it needs a mixture of bboth conservative and liberal policies. The libertarian part comes from the fact that I believe that people should ultimately be able to do what they want so long as it causes no harm to others).

Back to topic, in many reagrds, America is a highly successful country, a posterchild for capitalism the world over. Unless you fall short of the American dream. In which case you can look forward to 1 in 5 (50 million people) unable to afford health insurance who are buggered if tomorrow they even break a leg, let alone have anything serious happen to them. Add to that things like an ever weakening schools system that has schools seeking funding from corporations in return for an amount of inschool advertisingand a minimum wage that only a malnourised romanian could enjoy and you start to wonder whether a little socialism would harm America so much. Just as Britain in the 70s was in trouble because of too much socialism and needed more economically right wing ideas to save her, so America could do with using some left wing ideas to offset the worst of the effects that capitalism (for all its benefits) brings. Neither capitalism or socialism alone will make a prosperous country, you need a mixture of the two to come out on top.



Just to add as a little addendum, I think part of it may also come from the strong aversion of many Americans to ever be willing to pay more tax. Even if its for a good cause or would ultimately help them many times over, suggest even a small tax increase is a guaranteed way to lose the electorate in many US states. Since a lot of what we associate with socialism (free healthcare, social security net etc) would require in America an increase to its low tax rate, its easy to see whay such ideas struggle to find momentum a lot of the time.

Answer 4

Socialism is viewed with suspicion in America because it's purpose is to destroy the socio/economic system there. Surely it is not too difficult to understand that someone should be hostile to anyone who wants to destroy them.
Ordinary people do have a voice - it's called voting in an election. Something that doesn't happen in socialist countries.
Most people in the west who are motivated to work hard earn a good living and seeing how things were in the old Soviet empire, they know that they would be much worse off under socialism

Answer 5

Because they seem very selfish.

I know loads of people who live below the poverty line - working at minmum wage jobs (often because there are no enough decent jobs to go round). they work their arses off but are not paid fairly for it. I also know many skilled and qualifieid peopel who can't get decent paying jobs because there are not enough to go round.

I also had an ex boss who had inherited his company from this dad (ie he had never worked for it). The guy was a lazy tool who spent most of his time playing golf, and leaving the runnning of his company up to his employees (who earned a hell of a lot less) and yet he could still afford to drive a porsche, go on holiday 5 times a year and live in a big house. It had nothing to do with him being more deserving, talented or hard working than anyone else, just good luck that he was born into a prosperous family.

Its all "Me Me Me" with these Americans - "I want to make as much money as possible and sod everyone else."

They also seem to assume anyone who's poor must be "lazy" and a dropout - they tend to forget that people can become poor through bad luck - illness, injury, redundancy etc.

I often wonder how these "Its my money I'm not going to support some lazy slob" types would feel if everything went t.i.ts up for THEM and THEY lost their job, homes etc. Because at least a decent system of state sponsored health care and welfare support means that anyone who falls on hard times has a saftey net to keep them from utter desperation and poverty.

Sadly you do get people abusing the system.

Answer 6

You are going to be flamed by many people on this board by this question but let me take a shot at giving you a reasonable reply.

Capitalism is the core of American beliefs and is wrapped in so many different layers of idealogy that determines our culture that our distaste for things such as unions is almost knee jerk and not thought out at all. When I was in an economics class in High School we read parts of Karl Marx and someone said it made a lot of sense to her. She was tormented and called a "commie" in the halls for the remainder of the school year (this predates the fall of the USSR). Supporting socialism does not make you a traitor to the US but many in the US would disagree. We are the most intolerant people I know when it comes to dissenting views.

But your question is why?

In addition to being a little less tolerant than we appear to be based on the history of the principles on which our government was formed, those among us who are thinking, realize something more sinister that is absolutely true. In order for me to be at the top of the heap financially, someone needs to be at the bottom. Socialism believes in creating financial equality, Americans at their heart do not. We believe in self-determination and that any of us could be the next Bill Gates or Oprah Winfrey. If we just work hard enough, we can be multi-millionaires. This is partly true but what we all eventually realize is that in order for our millions to be worth so much, there have to be people working for less than 20K a year. That's capitalism and that's business.

There is one other small thing at play. The US was based on the idea that we don't inherit our money or status from our parents or bloodline and that we make our own way. This is part of the idea of self-determination that fuels us as we climb to the top of the heap.

The question is what are we going to do to help those who don't make it to the top and will helping them really create an environment where people no longer help themselves and make self-determination no longer the most important determining factor in our personal success? I say it won't but many here in the US strongly disagree, even if it is self-consciously.

Good question, ignore the flaming responses. Maybe you'll run for a government position some day.

Answer 7

Great question! Historically, the American government has been unable to separate socialism from communism. As far as Washingtons concerned, they go hand in hand. Its propaganda that's put in place by corportions, because the notion that all people should be socially equal threatens the power and profits of those currently in control.

The myth of meritocracy is the biggest sham of all. The notion of the American Dream, where the harder you work the more you achieve. That's just not the experience of the majority of Americans, and the few that are lucky enough to be the exception and achieve to an extraordinary level are made media examples out of just to further spread the myth that it can happen to anyone,.... when in fact it can't. And thats supported by the lack of upward mobility we've seen from generation to generation. Education is better than it ever was, more people go to college than ever before...but what do you see?

These days, minorities and women equal, if not exceed, wealthy white boys in medical school, law school, ect. so the attitude has become, if "just anyone" can do the job, then it can't be worth much,... so the salary and prestige formerly associated with these traditional profession occupations have declined. Prestige now rests with CEO's, upper level politicians, and corporate management, positions which are still predominantly held by wealthy white males. Doctors are no longer the big wage winners in the medical field, HMO's and pharmceutical companies are... and who runs them?

It's like you said,... the hardest workers are the lowest paid. Its about money, family connections, and keeping the average or below average American in his/her place, even though the refuse to overtly say that.

Vermont has the only socialist politician in congress. Bernie Sanders. He's been one of the most popular politicians in the history of Vermont. Vermont is a very socialist state, with social welfare programs that exceed those other states, its notoriously liberal and tolerant,.... and for some reason, Vermont is made a joke of in the media because of it. Ask yourself why.

Answer 8

They don't seem to know the difference between socialism, and authoritarian dictatorship masquerading as communism. If they read more about what it all actually means then Americans wouldn't view it as such- but when is that going to happen? Not for a long while...

Answer 9

Most of the people out there don't know what they are talking about.
Democratic socialism as we have it in Europe can't be quite as bad as they all make out. Most of the richest countries in the world have been socialist at some time.
Did you watch Labours conference the party anthem is The Red Flag.
Sweden has been socialist for 40+ years and has always been one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
China has now passed Britain for wealth and in 10 years will pass the USA.

Answer 10

the rich hate the poor, always have but no one knows why.
they think their great corperat standing makes them great people
it dosent, the poor who hate the rich have reasons, but the rich have non, socialism however has took a turn for the worse because the social jobs rely on the suffering of the people, cure the suffering and they loos there jobs so thet need to keep the suffering outherwise they cant justifie their jobs

Answer 11

You are getting answers all over the board on this question. The problem with socialism is that it prevents the achievers from excelling. Under socialism, there is no motivation for those people who can excel to excel.
Unions are a good case in point. The union membership depends on the company's management to continually expand the company so they, the workers, can reap more benefits from the management's success. This squeeze that the workers are putting on management is the main reason more and more of our jobs are moving overseas.
I recently had to help in the relocation of a metal grinding factory to Mexico. I'll leave the company unnamed. This company closed shop in Ohio, where it was paying its union workers $58.00 per hour total cost with benefits. For a full time metal grinder, it was costing this company $120,640.00 annually. The company employed 350 people. In Mexico, they hired people at $15.00 per hour. Total annual labor cost per worker was only $31,200.00. That was a big savings for that company.