Maybe I’m just angry today, but I rather enjoyed this rant by Senator Bernie Sanders. I am in no way a socialist, but I would have trouble disagreeing with much of what he says here:
History shows us that many of the countries that went socialist or communist in the last century did so because the country had swung too far in the opposite direction and the poor and middle class became desperate, or because their economies had collapsed during the great depression. I hope that is not what is in store for us. The last time the US had such a large gap between the rich and the poor was in the 1920’s.
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As an European I have no idea what Socialism means for Americans but I see that it is somehow equivalent of what for us is communism..or alien body-snatcher. This isn’t surprising considering that “red” Obama for Americans over here would be considered a center-right politician.
As someone observing from afar and since Americans tend to be an highly individualized, militaristic culture with plenty of emmigration and misplaced nationalism (this exists in Europe too, obviously), I’d say the shocking income and social inequality issue will more easily lead to an authoritarian right-wing regime.
When things go wrong in the village the mob usually blames the nobleman or the recently arrived foreigner and I think the US tendency will be the latter while ours will probably be the former (mostly).
Excellent points. Thanks.