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| Source:In These Times- U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (Democratic Socialist, Socialist Republic of Vermont) |
"In order to create a more egalitarian society, we must take back the reins of our government from the billionaire class and provide democratic socialism for working families—not just Wall Street and giant corporations.
The following is the transcript of a speech Sen. Bernie Sanders delivered at Georgetown University on November 19th outlining what the term democratic socialism means to him, as well as his plans to deal with the national security threat posed by ISIS."
From In These Times
"Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont spoke at Georgetown about democratic socialism in America."
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| Source:Georgetown University- U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (Democratic Socialist, Socialist Republic of Vermont) speaking at Georgetown University, in Washington. |
From Georgetown University
What Senator Bernie Sanders laid out in his socialism speech is what I’ve argued that democratic socialism is (not Marxism and economic state-ownership) he was talking about American private enterprise (or capitalism) that's combined with what's common Europe (at least Britain and Scandinavia) the welfare state. And that the private sector would subsidize the welfare state to provide employees with their employer benefits, that are generally provided to employees by their employers, not government.
Keep in mind, nothing that government does in a free society is free. Especially socialism and that all of these new government social programs like college, childcare (to use as examples) would all come with a cost. A big cost in taxes especially in new payroll taxes, but perhaps a cost in higher income taxes across the board.
This socialist notion that the bottom ten-percent income tax rate could stay that way in American social democracy, not likely. There’s only so much the wealthy are willing to pay to pay for other people’s lives. What Senator Sanders is arguing for is to bring Sweden and the Nordic social democratic economic model to America.
The difference between democratic socialism and Marxism, is that in a social democracy, the economy is in private hands. Meaning business’s and industries and people own their own property and even business’s. But again with a welfare state to insure that no one has to go without in the private enterprise system.
In a Marxist system, the state (meaning the central government) owns everything. The means of production in society, as well as all other property. With no guaranteed individual rights other than being taken care of by the state. But as every Marxist state that this world has ever seen, the people generally aren’t taken care, because of badly the state manages the economy. What Senator Sanders wants to create is a large welfare and regulatory state, to go with a welfare state. On top of the private enterprise system.
