Over 1/3 of Americans favor socialism, or at least do not think it a bad thing? How can this be, especially in America? Experiments in socialism have failed around the world and throughout time, yet, some think it can be successful?
The European model is simple: The government is the nation, and therefore owns everything, even your wages. The government decides how much it needs, and how much you can keep. The government knows what is best for all. You are a subject of the government. The garnishment of your wages for re-distribution to others with less is mandated. You are safe, because the government will provide everyone with a minimal level of provision, whether we are talking healthcare, wages, housing -- whatever. The government will take care of you, and in effect, owns you.
The American (in its original form) model is more complex: The people are citizens, own their property and wages, and pay taxes based on mutual agreement. The people are the government. It is the government which is the subject to its people. The people know best, and each are given the opportunity to provide for themselves, to whatever degree of provision their aspirations and ambitions take them. Charity toward others is an option. The government is constrained to provide liberty for all, a tempestuous way of life for certain (too much for some), and realizes unequal outcomes as a consequence. Each person is free to live and die according to their own choices and decisions in life.
Today, however, there are at least a third of Americans who no longer have the stomach for living in liberty, for living in the American system. They want a hybrid system, where they can elect government officials who will write laws and policies such that the government provides for them, under the guise that the "government" should provide for all. They are nothing more that lazy beggars, asking the "government" to do their panhandling for them. They do not deserve the life of liberty, and should move elsewhere where being a subject or ward of the state is a part of the system (you can not work a day in your life and receive $3000/month in unemployment in Norway). When Benjamin Franklin stated "Those who are willing to surrender freedom for security deserve neither", he was not merely mentioning security from flying musket balls, for his statement is applicable in many areas of life (we have become slaves to insurance-based systems -- auto, health, whatever -- and typically pay more in premiums than the benefits we receive).
Eventually, however, socialism fails for one major reason: those who provide its financial resources are eventually crushed under socialism's burdens. People who think someone else should be responsible for their lives, responsible for their decisions in life, and responsible for leveling the economic playing field for them have lost sight of the glory that is liberty and being American. They prefer to be enslaved to a lessor, but "safer" system, and are willing to steal from those who work and pay taxes to get it. They vilify the industrious, and exalt the irresponsible. For such people I can say but one thing: regardless of where you were born, if you do not have the fortitude to be an American, go somewhere else because this land is not for you.
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