Abuses that Wouldn’t Exist in a Socialist America

[eridani]

http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/11/02/abuses-that-wouldnt-exist-in-a-socialist-america/

We Americans have been deceived by the notion that individual desires preempt the needs of society; by the Ayn-Rand/Reagan/Thatcher aversion to government regulation; by the distorted image of ‘freedom’ as winner-take-all capitalism; by the assurance that the benefits of greed will spread downwards to everyone.

Our current capitalist-driven inequalities will only be rectified when people realize that a strong community makes successful individuals, not the other way around.

These are a few of the ways we would benefit with a social democracy:

1. The Super-Rich Wouldn’t Make Our Decisions for Us

Decisions about higher education should be made by all of us, with public tax dollars allocated in a democratic fashion. But our tax dollars have gone away. The Reagan-era “government is the problem” attitude led to dramatic tax cuts and a resulting decline in government funding for public universities. Instead of paying for all the societal benefits heaped upon them, billionaires keep getting richer — just 14 individuals making more than the entire federal education budget two years in a row.

As a result, as noted by Larry Wittner, “campus administrators, faced with declining income, are increasingly inclined to accept funding from wealthy individuals and corporations that are reshaping higher education to serve their interests.” The Koch brothers have spent millions funding universities and stipulating the kind of education that should be provided.