Why do the Right Wing refer to the Captalist countries of Germany, U.K, France, Italy etc as "socialist"?

Question

whenever the Right Wing are asked about National Healthcare of every other western nation, the Right Wing quite wrongly refers to them as "socialist" which of course is not true, it seems the Right Wing think anyone who is not a greedy, selfish, self centred evil ******** is "socialist"..

Answer 1

They have been conditioned by their political pundits to believe it is so.

Answer 2

Let me explain something to people on here.

Socialism is a political theory/system

Capitalism is an economic theory/system

They can, and do, exist side by side. So, countries like Germany, France, Canada, etc... are socialist in that they have good social security networks, free universal health care, programs to help the poor, hungry etc....

These countries also operate under capitalist economies. They have business' that buy and sell in free markets (in fact all of Europe is one big free market, with a few exceptions)

It is time you Americans learned that Socialism is not a bad word. It has nothing to do with your understanding of Communism (which in turn has nothing to do with Communist theory). Most western countries have accepted the idea that the fortunate (yes,if you have a good job, are healthy, can afford good things in life it is because you are fortunate, not deserving) should help the unfortunate and all should contribute to their society as best they can. This was the whole point of living in grouped societies to begin with. Somewhere along the line, Americans decided to live for me me me and f#$k everyone else.

Its too bad, but I just don't see you changing now, the decline has begun.

Answer 3

It's not just the Right Wing, it is also the government of those countries that refer to themselves that way. You can add Denmark & Canada among others.

A Socialist government provides Social Services at taxpayer expense. The more services offered, the more Socialist the government is.

The US Welfare system & Social Security are Socialist programs.

Communist means all things are held "In Common". Many religious communities are Communist.

The distorted version of Marxism (Following the recommendations of Karl Marx) that is known as Communism is actually Totalitarian Socialism.

Capitalism is a system where all enterprises and services will earn enough to pay for themselves and ideally generate a profit that will benefit the investors or be used to improve and expand the service or enterprise. Some Enterprises in a Capitalist system may be deliberately operated to generate a loss. There are many good reasons for this. Not the least of which is the charitable side of a Capitalist enterprise that earns money on one side to fund a charity on the other side :)

In practice most governments are a mix of Socialist, Communist and Capitalist. Whichever is the largest component of the particular government is applied as the label to describe that government.

So US is Capitalist despite its many Socialist programs
UK is Socialist despite its largely Capitalist economy.
and so on for the others in your list.

Answer 4

The right wing defines any system that takes social realities into account (e.g. the value of universal edcation to all citizens, regardless of who pays for it; ditto health care, etc) as "socialist.

But--if you read/listen carefully, you'll see that they actually don't even know what the term "socialist" (or "capitalist" for that matter) means. It's simply an epithet they apply to anyone/anything that doesn't fit their ideology.

You'll also see that they define virtually all other countries as "socialist"--because, being outside their group/ideology, these are regarded as a potential threat and so must be discredited.

Quite honestly, they don't even realize that anyone with an education is just laughing at their ignorance.

Answer 5

It takes a lot of effort to stay that narrow minded, I know I couldn't keep it up, so I didn't... I have more friends now, and they're not all super judgmental or self-righteous. Are the roads socialist? What about streetlights and municipal works, are those things socialist?

Answer 6

Because those nations are closer to socialism than capitalism. High taxes, universal healthcare and education, in most cases constitutes a socialist nation.

Answer 7

The definition of a Capitalist society is a free market, thus you measure it by the amount of regulation placed on business by the government. My stepfather is a British entrepreneur, and he runs development enterprises all over Europe and in the U.S. He would be the first one to tell you that operating costs anywhere in Europe are MUCH higher than they are in the U.S., because of the level of government regulation. It costs you half a fortune over there just to get through the environmental impact analysis.

You can say a lot of things about us here in America, but you can't even begin to claim we're not more business friendly than Europe.

Answer 8

Because they are socialist. look at companies like Airbus, if they didn't get regular subsidies from France and Germany they would have gone under long ago. The Governments in Europe have their fingers in every aspect of their citizens lives. Why do you think gas is so high over there, its not because the oil is expensive, its because of the taxes imposed.

Answer 9

confident yet they are nevertheless searching for can grant to discovered the financial gadget from us yet they are the in the genuine 10 economies of the international on the mo i think of its incorrect at a similar time as us europeans and brits have plenty debt we ought to evaluate the can grant to distant places help to up and coming economies that are turning out to be properly off adequate to look after themselves no longer a racist ingredient basically an assertion

Answer 10

The only thing that i can say is that you are just plain wrong. Those countries are admittedly socialist. Maybe i am greedy, but i don't want to pay for your health care. I have my own that i purchase and the last thing i want is some crappy government insurance. Your communist hate speech discredits the validity of your question anyways. Let me ask you this...... why are liberals like yourself afraid to call yourselves socialists and communists when you truly are? If you don't believe that you are a communist then i urge you to go to their official website and tell me where you disagree with them. Here is the official communist party website:

www.cpusa.org

Answer 11

Well, I think it depends on definitions. Communists used to refer to themselves as socialists. Rightwingers tend to be very traditional and eager to keep things as they are. Perhaps they still think of socialists as "commies". Nowadays even capitalist countries may have socialist features like caring (somewhat) about weaker members of its society.