steven787 said:
Socialism in the US is unpopular for several reasons. 1. People who live here choose to, and choose to because they believe they can do better in a profit motivated system. 2. US citizens may not have the highest median income world-wide but they have the highest 2nd quartile. This means that the 2nd quartile lives better than in any other country, while the 1st quartile is poorer in some respects they still are pretty split (see #1). 3. People above the median income (the 3rd and 4th quartiles) are the ones who run the country. The US gov't, the States, and municipalities are very big, pretty much anyone from the top half can get a position in gov't if they wanted to. They don't want to because of the profit motivator. The poorer half can get jobs in government pretty easily; actually Police, Military, Education, Public Health are all desparate for workers. Revolutions (peaceful or violent) only happen when the richer half of society is still opressed by a separate political class. In Russia and China, the only major Communist revolutionary instances, happened with considerable outside influence and world war in countries with almost no middle class. |
If you are a true socialist in the US you could be branded a "pinko" or communist, openly saying you have socialist leanings could lead you into trouble in the US unlike many other democracies in the western world