The Importance Of Socialism In America

America Should Not Embrace Socialism

Socialism has recently reentered the public eye of Americans with the rise of presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders, a proud democratic socialist and candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for president, has plans of fully implementing socialism if he is elected in many areas of Americans lives, for example universal free college tuition. (citation needed) His recent surges in the polls show that he has quite a few devoted followers, but the question remains whether socialism is really the best choice for America. Socialism at its roots seems like a great system. People get almost everything important in life for free, such as health care, education, as well as a guaranteed living wage.

The United States was founded on the idea of equal opportunity, not equal results. If you have an idea and the money to back it, you can go and attempt to make that dream a reality. Socialism destroys that idea in its entirety, instead focusing on equal results. As Bill Jenkins, author of Socialism is Harmful, stated, “Because socialists reward those who treat money poorly and penalize those who treat money well, the system will never work” (3). One of the most popular ways to create this equal result is to raise the minimum wage. However, this has a few fundamental flaws. While larger businesses such as McDonalds or Walmart could easily pay a few dollars more to keep their stores open many smaller businesses do not have that kind of luxury. By raising the minimum wage many smaller businesses would either have to lay off workers or shut their doors entirely due to lack of funds. Not only that but even if they can afford to keep their current staff they may not have the money to hire new employees

In reality, most of the poor in capitalistic countries such as the United States are not in such a state. Data from a recent census reveals that of the official "poor": 76 percent have air conditioning, 66 percent have more than two rooms of living space per person, 97 percent own at least one color television, 62 percent have either cable or satellite television, almost 75 percent of households own a car (30 percent own two or more), 73 percent own microwave ovens, More than 50 percent have stereos, 33 percent have automatic dishwashers, 99 percent have refrigerators, Virtually none lack running water or flushing toilets, 46 percent own their own home, the average of which is a three bedroom house with 1.5 baths, that has a carport and porch or patio, and the average value of which is 70 percent of the median American home