This pretty much sums it up.

While socialism sounds and looks good on paper, it's really not practical.

I'm all for socialized programs, and also for government not to meddle in abortion gay rights etc.  That is, they are left to the people that concerns them to choose.

lol, I used to be very poor. one month I only had 20 bucks to eat off of, so I went to the local grocery store, and asked the general manager what the most efficient use of my money was. He took me in the back and sold me a day old expired case of frozen waffles (I am sure he pocketed the 20). It's crazy that I still like them after that month. I look back now, and realize it never dawned on me to ask for government assistance. I figured it was my fault I got into this mess, it was my job to get myself out of it.

Anyway, I figured out what it took not to be poor, and I did the things it took to get there.

The funny thing, is my success is not what gave me these political views, my political views gave me this success. If you are the kind of person who feels your stake in life is solely the responsibility of yourself, you tend to do better in life then if your one to expect others to improve your life for you. Just my opinion anyway.

And I am not rich by any means, I make about 80K a year.

1. There is no reason to believe that economics behaves differently between two full scale examples.  If you do believe so, then there is really no reason to argue because America is the only example of a first world country with a large population.  I guess a better argument for you would be that the there's a population size that, if a country surpasses it, it is unable to govern efficiently.

2. No one is taking your freedom of choice away.  You can go to whatever school you want, you can go to whatever hospital or doctor you want (more freedom than many American healthcare providers), and you have to option to pay for these services yourself in the private market.  The only difference is the option to have the government fund your education and healthcare.

socialism sounds better in theory but capitalism more reliable/relevant in application

i dont know about the US, but in the UK, the average wage is 22k a year, so 80k a year is almost 4x the average wage here, i mean, i would definetley call someone on 80k a year Rich.

I worded that poorly. I should have said “hard work and dedication to bettering society”.

I am sure your co-worker works hard, but if he was hit by a bus tomorrow, his job could be filled in an afternoon. For different reasons, the same applies to a school teachers, police officers, or firemen.

Teaching is an incredibly noble profession, and extremely valuable thing for a country, but the individual who teaches is not worth more, because so many people of equal competence exist. If no one wanted to teach people, they would get paid a lot more.

If you need 10 teachers but have 20, you becoming a the 21st teacher does nothing to better anything.

A great baseball player is worth all that money, because of two reasons. One is he makes the owner more then he costs (that's the bet anyway when they give him that salary), and because if he was not there, no one else could do his job as good as him.

If everyone could play baseball like a-rod, he wouldn't make any money. While bettering society though entertainment is not nearly as noble, it's still a better society with popular sports figures in it. Millions of people get a lot of enjoyment from watching baseball, and thus the people who provide that enjoyment are paid handsomely for it.

If your friend wants more money, he needs to find something less easy to replace.

In the US, the average salary for someone my age, is about 60k. I am about to turn 40, so I would guess from that graph at about 60K

http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Country=United_States/Salary/by_Age

EDIT: I make 54.6k Pounds.

ah, fair enough, in the US then, i wouldnt consider you Rich

edit: 54.6k, ok, id still consider you pretty well off on that here, its still more than double what either of my parents earn.

Not sure if you saw my edit, but 80K US = 54.6K UK.