why police and fire departments are not socialism

Sign up for ourDaily Digestemail newsletter to receive intellectually engaging content and updates from our organization straight to your inbox. If a private fund manager steals his clients pension contributions, he goes to jail. (LogOut/ More importantly, conflating all government action with socialism forces us to defend many of the most objectionable forms of state activity, including those that we would want to abolish in a free and just society. They are infrastructure that exists in every country regardless of socioeconomic framework. I will concede, though, that often even some of the emergency services could be better handled by private institutions. Post office at Alamo, May 1972. Like the DMV? No. That requires a community effort. We can abbreviate that by saying we do and decide some things individually and some things collaboratively, or socially, with the size or scope of the collaborative group in the latter case varying according to the activity. Is it about control? To understand Bernies background beliefs, then, you must know a bit about the Democratic Socialists of America, or DSA, to which he alludes when he uses that proper name. When that is the case, societies whose members hold democratic values treat those matters as political meaning the full polity, or what our Greek philosophical forebears called the polis and afford the full demos Greek for the people a say in deciding upon them. Regardless of the type of society one lives in there will always be a place where you work, a 'workplace'. Socialism! The question virtually answers itself. Lincoln, FDR, Eisenhower, Martin Luther King, and indeed most American leaders throughout our history had what the test of time showed to be a very compelling answer to that query. Why do we need federally run parks? Citizens pay a little bit of taxwhich should never be more than 10 percent of incometo fund a military to protect against invaders; police and prisons to capture and incarcerate criminals; and certain emergency services to protect against fire, floods, pandemics, or meteorite strikes. (You brush your teeth individually, you play baseball collaboratively.). They operate according to democratic principles of access and distribution, providing services to all regardless of ones ability to pay. (Lawyers call such firms public corporations.). No one who tells you otherwise has investigated the matter, let alone thought about it. Germany Had Its Debts Written Off. Why, our fire and police departments. The fact that this infrastructure helped the U.S. economy tremendously was a bonus. Also, paying taxes to support first responders is entirely in keeping with the republic our founders created. Because itdoes. Note first that we can disaggregate economic or productive activities and arrangements into three distinct dimensions of variation that seem to matter to us, each corresponding to a phase of production: control over productive inputs, control over the production process, and control over productive outputs. We interact with millions of Americans each week, publishing numerous articles each day and promoting them through vast social media and email networks. If you spend much time on social media, youve probably seen the memes purporting to show just how socialist the United States already is by listing a bunch of government programs, services, and agencies. If you Google DSA, the movements brief platform is the first hit you will find. And things could hardly be otherwise, for all productive economic activity proceeds on the basis of rules, and rules are the province of collective decision-making politics., Second, note that Bernie Sanders, whose frontrunner status in seeking the US Presidency is what has occasioned the socialist renewal, does not call himself a socialist or even a democratic socialist. He calls himself a Democratic Socialist. And as the capital letters indicate, thats not a generic predicate term, its a proper name as different in grammatical form from mere socialist as Robert Barone is from robber baron.. Not very radical, that at least not in any objectionable sense. So we can think of our economy as lots of befores, afters, and in-betweens. And all three of these phases matter quite existentially to us because of their roles in determining what we do, what we have, and indeed even much of what we are and become. Chris Maisano is a Jacobin contributing editor and a member of Democratic Socialists of America. Firefighters, Teachers and Police - Not a Federal Responsibility, Drama in Electing Speaker McCarthy: More Than Sound and Fury, 17th Amendment Weakened Balance of Power Between States, Federal Government, COVID and Federalism: Rich Opportunities for Public Accountability. Private institutions running jails have every incentive to lobby legislators for longer prison terms, for instance. It might be helpful, then, to sort some things out sos to get clearer on what were all talking about when we talk about socialism.. No one gets left behind. Its one thing to identify public libraries with socialism. Oh, and for the official record, the NAZI Party was NOT socialist. After all, governments are dependent on some minimally robust level of economic activity to fund themselves. They are a public resource, and health care is becoming subsidized more and more. If we do not know what a word means, or the meaning is amorphous, then comparative logic becomes impossible. The first is that all modern economies are what economists call mixed. There is no pure socialism, pure individualism, pure capitalism, or pure anything else where political and economic systems are concerned. Subscribe today to get it in print! It funnels billions of federal tax dollars to state and local police departmentsas well as park police, college police and other law enforcement agencies. A publication that calls itself Big Think should not be conflating government spending with socialism. Fire departments could be considered a socialist program if the government was only made up of, and meant to represent, the proletariat. (Electric cars still incur a carbon footprint in the way of increased power demand, and solar panels require raw materials, many of which are toxic. Hydro and wind endanger natural habitats.). Much of the United States is already socialistalmost all of the bad parts, for example. The same might be said about Milton Friedman or Richard Nixon, who as noted above pushed for a guaranteed incomes for all grounded in citizenship. Medicare PartD offers some subsidies to low-income seniors, but its widely recognized as a costly giveaway to the prescription drug industry. The other word we use to describe our polity another Latin one this time to complement the Greek is also suggestive here: we call our polity a republic, from the Latin res publica, or thing of the public (sometimes also translated into the suggestive word commonwealth hmm common / wealth). Trump, who passes himself off as a corporate whizz, has not in fact worked within multiple-shareholder-controlled corporations, and has only once issued shares publicly in a Trump family enterprise. For one thing, the rich and powerful invest heavily in political activity to promote their interests and block progressive reforms. They used the word socialism in order to dupe the country into thinking they were merely a pro-labor movement when they were anything but. Roads are collectively owned infrastructure, and created under the capitalist mode of production. There is a postage fee. Why is a public library socialist, but police and fire departments arent? If someone, should it be one person, some persons, or all persons? (Well soon get to why thats mistaken.) It is the collective ownership of business, industry, and labor better known as the means of production by those who do the labor. Why Are So Many Young People Dying Suddenly? But lets be honest: thats probably not the case. The government pays the firemen, owns the equipment, and the labor force is organized. And our founders did not create a socialist system. To avoid national bankruptcy and the mass destitution of the elderly and middle classes that will inevitably follow, these corrupt schemes must be phased out, beginning as soon as possible. Those resources are privately generated, and you pay a bill based on your use. Its started again The S word socialism has returned to brisk circulation. The comment, which was liked more than 2,500 times, demonstrates either an appalling ignorance or a blatant disdain for truth and accuracy. The old Latin query cui bono? (who benefits?), on which our contemporary follow the money is a variation, highlights whats most salient to most people the purpose or point, in effect, of productive activity. The special tax district gave the corporation and theme park its own set of privileges, including autonomy in zoning, public functions and its own police and fire department, according to The Guardian. And because all of those purportedly socialist programs have been won without fundamentally challenging private property, there would be no need for a decisive confrontation with the owners of capital and their political allies. In the war of ideas, its important that those of us who love liberty and oppose socialism actually understand the difference. I saw Hasan Piker from TYT repeat this in his Politicon debate and it's one of those narratives that refuses to die. There are many sub-questions that this question implicates, to each of which many distinct answers have historically been given. Often, if capitalists arent induced to make investments through business subsidies and other incentives, they simply will refuse to invest. When we use number words we know we are speaking of countable objects. Should those things be socialist? Capitalism and social programs exist in most countries. No Bernie, the Police and Fire Departments Are Not Socialism. Free peoples have understood that concept since the beginning of time. These direct forms of influence are not the only way that powerful interests shape government action. Evidence suggests that socialism is becoming more popular in the United States. Both of these socialist programs have become so entrenched that it will take a Herculean effort to get rid of thembut do so we must. Is Bernie Sanders a socialist? On May 31, 2012, Alison Fraser of Heritage testified to the House Budget Committee that today, federal spending is at about 23 percent of [Gross Domestic Product], and debt held by the public is approximately 70 percent. Note that none of these measures involve moving from private sector ordering of productive activity to public sector ordering. For more than 30 years, he has researched radical left, Marxist, and terrorist movements and their covert influence on mainstream politics. The governments first and only legitimate role is to safeguard the lives, rights, and property of its citizens. Socialism means that the means of production are owned by the workers. Its a price free people willingly pay to stay free. Not least because so many now seem to have so many distinct things in mind when they have anything definite in mind as they name-check socialism and its many putative adherents. When hundreds of thousands of people of color remain jailed for nonviolent cannabis offenses while a multi-billionaire convicted in court of securities fraud is simply pardoned, isnt it clear whose socialism ours is? When compared to the historical, postWorld War II average of approximately 20 percent of GDP for federal spending and 44 percent for debt held by the public, this growth alone would be cause for concern.. This article first appeared on townhall.com. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) has brought much-needed relief to the working poor, but it also serves as an indirect subsidy for low-wage employers. Inputs are transformed into outputs, with some of the latter consumed and some plowed back into further production. Its like saying rocks are big., Let us begin to disaggregate, then, by starting at the front end of the production process with inputs. Collecting taxes to pay for public services and welfare programs is not socialist. For too long now, fire departments across the United States have been socialist organizations, resulting in taxes on the American people. (Exceptions were made when rich senators offered to ponyup denarii on projects so theyd have their names attached to roads.). An article detailing the recent surge in the popularity of socialism was teed up this way by the brands social media editor: If youre against socialism, dont drive on public roads or call 911! Yet another question in this realm of productive processes is, for industries that we decide should be more privately and less publicly ordered, which private parties should do the ordering? Socialist Programs like Medicaid, welfare, social security, can and do exist in capitalist countries. This isnt surprising. Our new issue on nationalism is out now. Use it or lose it. As our middle class continues to shrink at a record rate thanks to our shift over to oligarch socialism, the present would seem an apt time to reexamine the question of what kind of socialists we want to be. The State of Alaska believes, for example, as I suspect many do, that since no human being created petroleum ex nihilo, all Alaskans have claims on the states petroleum reserves. Here the question is who decides what will be produced and how. These are not anti-capitalist institutions. Librariesproduce (enable would be a better term)an informed and entertained society. The answer is to roll back that socialism, not expand it. Well, one way to start finding out is to do what any third grader could do and what pundits for some reason seem yet to have bothered to do look it up! > There. All modern developed economies, and the states that establish and enable them, have public and private sectors, state apparatuses and market mechanisms, and so on. The idea that any government activity is synonymous with socialism has major political and strategic implications. No. They share a common set of ideas and values predicated on protecting the status quo and repressing any major challenge to that system, particularly those that come from the working class and the Left. The military is the most socialist institution we have. For the sake of concision, then, let me propose what I think is a reasonably straightforward method of terminological housekeeping that can keep both our words and our thoughts a bit clearer than they now seem to be. Some could be privately run for profit. A 12-year-old Ethiopian girl was snatched by four men on her way home from school. What is it to be more socialist or more individualist along this dimension? Socialism means that the means of production are owned by the workers. So long as the fundamental structures of the economy remain unchanged, state action will disproportionately benefit capitalist interests at the expense of everything else. They are a public resource, and one that incurs a personal financial burden if you would like to use them in addition to the social contribution. (Lincolns Homestead Act and Land Grant Act were products of this vision.) Are Mike Bloomberg and Donald Trump? You simply take what you need when you need it. In this video, we dive a little into what a social democracy is and how social programs are not socialism.-------------------Support Us:Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/leafletsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/_leaflets_/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@leaflets_-------------------Maybe you've heard this argument\"Oh you don't like socialism? Well have you ever heard of this little thing called the fire department? If it were truly democratic, the ability to overturn the system by any majority demanding a different economic system would have to exist indefinitely. are not, nor were they ever, socialist countries. Socialism, either through state-control/regulatory bodies/workers councils, carries out the will of the workers to equitably redistribute the wealth created by industries. In a country as deeply and reflexively anti-statist as the United States, the identification of socialism with government is perhaps the worst possible rhetorical strategy the Left could adopt. FACT: Most Americans never use the socialized services of the fire department. This is also true for several other social, collective resources: -Is the Post Office socialist? Every modern country has roads, public schools and police officers, that doesn't make them inherently socialist. Madison argued that state power extends to issues that "concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State." Nowhere in the. Lets start by observing two readily confirmed facts. The same goes for those who discuss tax reform, access to healthcare, housing, and education, and the like. The federal government simply does not have the money to bail out profligate states or municipalities. Why do those who now make up our new largest demographic millennials, who bumped out the boomers last year not fear it? If we feel we must use such words, though, and especially if we must retain socialism, then let us proceed as follows. However, many hospitals are privately owned and controlled, and many operate at a profit. If you don't like socialism, tell all the firefighters to go home, they are a socialist program paid for with our taxes. Why? Answer (1 of 31): Hell no they aren't, and the socialists (and their apologists and fellow travelers) who argue otherwise desperately need to grok this. The DSA is a political movement with adherents in both the current U.S. Congress and fourteen state legislatures. Furthermore under proper separation of powers, these functions should be carried out at the state and local level, not the federal level. But what sorts of things are we describing when using the S word? For inputs and processes are as constitutive of our productive arrangements as outputs are, and in a way they are far more important because they are more determinative than anything else in determining the distribution of outputs themselves. Some people will do all the paying while others do none at all. Thats about as big a collective as you can imagine it is maximally social and not at all individual and so we can say that where matters political are concerned democracy is itself socialist. The opposite, individualist extreme where only one person decides for all on political matters is what we call monarchy from the Latin mono, or one and the slightly less extreme case is oligarch, where but a few decide for all. In any true form of deterministic socialism, the government is always the one signing,as well as cashing your paycheck, eventually eliminating the need for a paycheck altogether. But the sheer volume of spending tells us little about the political valence of government action. ! But not really socialism. Fact: In 1806, more than a decade before Karl Marx was born, the United States Congress passed, and President Thomas Jefferson signed, legislation authorizing construction of the Cumberland Road, an interstate highway that would stretch more than 600 miles, connecting the Potomac and Ohio Rivers. 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