Is the federal government allowed to invest in people's futures without it being called socialism?

Question

In business, the greatest asset of all is the people that perform work that brings value to the organization. Without people, no work could be done, simple as that, really. Does government not have a roll in investing in America's greatest asset, her people?

...a role, not, a roll...darned typo's...

Answer 1

This is the silliest debate of all times. The people who think the government has had nothing to do with the development of our society have a narrow perception. The fact is, in America our great industrial machine was nurtured by and developed by the government.
The primary responsibility of the federal government is to protect the union. To do this requires an army. To have an army requires money. Which brings us to the problem the federal government faced: How does a government get money to support an army in a country in which the wealth is controlled by the people and not the government.
The answer of course is income taxes.
When the country started expanding westward, it had vast territories that were unsettled, undeveloped, and had no state militias for defense. The tax revenue it was collecting from the developed states wasn't generating enough money to protect the newly acquired land and its vast natural resources. It was a simple equation at the time. More taxes needed to be collected, so more personal wealth had to be developed. To increase personal wealth, the general population needed to be educated. Once the general population started to be educated with practical skills to operate businesses, infratstucture had to be built to conduct commerce.
In short, the federal government needed to invest in its people in order to get the revenue it needed to protect its people and the land.
In the USA, the success of the government is strongly tied to the ability of the people to pay income tax. There is no other way for the government to collect the revenue it needs to perform its intended job, national defense. As the world progresses, that job becomes more and more expensive.
Look at the condition in the world today. We are fighting a war that is in perspective a relatively small war compared to the wars in which we had enaged in the past. The cost of this small war is crippling the federal budget and keeping it in deficit. The tax on the current wealth level of our country is not enough to provide the adequate defense of our country in today's world. We need to raise the personal wealth level of the average American. And to do that, we need to provide further education beyond high school for all Americans.
The imagination, drive, and the intelligence of our young people is the resource we need to develop in order to insure the security of our nation into the 22nd century.
This debate over the word socialism needs to be set aside. An investment, as you call it, in the people of America is paramont at this time.

Answer 2

In reality, the government has no money to invest without first taking it from people (individuals, families). Income taxes are taken from people's earnings (reducing what they have). Corporate/business taxes create lower wages and higher prices. This again, reduces what people bring home, and increases their expenses of living. I could go on, but you get my drift... Also, people take risks that they deem appropriate. They start businesses, make investments, invent things, build things, etc. Politicians are politicians, and bureaucrats are bureaucrats. They have no idea how to magically "plan" an economy. The truth is, nobody on the planet knows what "the next big thing" is, or what new direction things will go. Contrary to what many think, the market always decides. No matter how much government involvement there is. Detroit is a great example. The government has taxed other businesses, to give money to the autos to build "hybrid" cars, and even mandated how many of them they had to sell. Guess what? The autos are losing tons of money on these hybrids because people won't buy them. They're selling them at huge losses, and still not enough buyers. Like I said, the market always decides, so there is no reason to have the government take from Bill's business, and give it to Joe's business. No government has a magic crystal ball. America is increasingly becoming more socialist. Yet, those who support it, while they keep getting what they want, are still the one's complaining things are getting worse. Connect the dots! European socialist countries like Germany, Spain, France, and even the UK are in deep doo-doo. The last thing America needs is to follow their footsteps into ruin. The best thing the government can do to "invest" in people, is to simply stop taking their money. People need it more than the government does. Trust me. And one last note: What is is. Socialism is socialism. If some folks support it, be proud and call it socialism. Why insist on calling it by a different name? If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck... it's a duck.

Answer 3

I'm not sure what you mean, but I think I know what you're implying.

In terms of an economy (one type of which is socialism), America generally supports a free market. This means that government regulation should be kept to a minimum, so that the "invisible hand," as Adam Smith called it, can allocate resources where they are most needed, and for the best price. Whether or not people agree, the government simply cannot provide this.

Capitalism works. It works because people are selfish by nature, and will look out for themselves more than their competition.

Socialism has a good intent. It seeks to make the market cooperative, rather than competitive. But it's utopian. Humans simply can't be part of a collective. They will assert their individuality in the end.

Answer 4

Our government is not allowed to make a profit of any kind.
There is no 'business' end of government. They can mine gold and print money.
FREE ENTERPRISE system is the profit making structure that we are all under the rule of.
There are flaws in both systems, and yet, I can not think of another country I would rather live. Until GREED is eliminated from our society, There will always be a struggle for the poor to survive. 10% of the people have control over 90% of the money!

Answer 5

An investment is where you put buy something and claim the proceeds of it's economic exploitation as poffit. When you do that with a steel mill, it's capitalism. When you do it with a person, it's slavery. When the government does it, yeah, it can be likened to socialism - investment of any kind is an economic decision, the more economic decisions are made by the government, the closer you are to a command economy.

Answer 6

Sometimes I get tired of other people getting more than me, especially when it's from the government I voted for, but I have to remind myself of one thing:

The federal government IS the people.

The Constitution says so in the very first sentence, so of course "We" can invest in ourselves.

Everybody in this forum should have voted in the last election or be planning to vote in the next. If not, there is no room for complaint.

Anybody who votes makes a deal. You give up personal control of public life in exchange for that vote. Call your congressman if you want, but sooner or later you have to trust the people you voted to manage public life.

The deal is, sometimes we get what we want, sometimes we don't, and sometimes we get screwed. Very, very rarely does the government make us rich or poor.

It's not exactly a lottery, but we all represent, we all chip in, and some people get more of the pie than others because "We" (not I, not you) made it happen that way.

I don't like sharing what I earn any more than anybody else in Politics. That's why I plan to vote, to see what We come up with next time.

Answer 7

Get rich quick schemes in the capitalist business world, (buyouts, IPOs, conglomerates, acquisitions, mergers, and the stock market), do not actually work. Remaining solvent does not actually exist within false economics capitalism.

Profit existing in the capitalist business world, or millionaires existing within capitalism, is pathological deception committed by the 21 organizations spying on the population with plain clothes agents, (with covert fake names and fake backgrounds).

Actual economics is the persons paying the monthly business loan payments of companies voting at work in order to control the property they are paying for.

Capitalism is the psychology of imaginary parents, false economics, and the criminal deception of employees that are paying the bills (including the stocks and bonds, or shares) of companies.

Anti-democracy republicanism is the psychology of imaginary parents and false government.

Answer 8

Sooner or later, I suspect after things have gotten so undeniably ****** up because of captialistic greed, people will realize there is a needed synthesis of existing economic models.

You may think me an alarmist, but my guess is that there will come a huge energy crunch some time in the next few years, and it will disrupt the transport of food itself. There will be food riots and many will die. Then people will start to wonder how it could happen, if the system they are bullied into worshipping is the grand ultimate economic principle.

the labor of people is what floats civilization Ayn Rand can take a hike in this regard. There are rich men of importance, but there are far more rich who are a perfect waste of the oxygen they beathe.

Answer 9

Socialism is a redistribution of wealth. It attempts to create equally by enforcing equal standing in terms of class. Investing in anyone's future is not socialism in any way shape or form. That's an entirely capitalist mindset, which is the exact opposite of socialism.

Answer 10

Government absolutely does have a vested interest in investing in its people. We need to get out of this govt doesn't work well they can't make good decisions, we don't support anything our govt ever does mode and allow them to make decisions for all people, not just big business.