Paul Le Blanc's The Absence Of Socialism In America

While the United States currently faces a diminishing middle class, many of it’s citizens seem to be attracted to changing the capitalist economic system in place today. While the rich exhaust their privileges, the lower class finds itself in a cycle of poverty. Although fear of any socialist reforms crippled the country in the twentieth century, the popularity of current European socialist countries have those suffering in the United States beginning to consider a socialist economy. While capitalism emphasizes money and individuals owning enterprises and production, socialism puts the majority of its emphasis on its people, cumulatively owning production and distribution (Archer). However, the majority of the country stays true to the economy in place today, encouraging the lower class to work harder in order to succeed, as many have done before, arguing that socialism would not be beneficial to American society, or fit in with our goals as a nation. Curiosity in socialism is growing as citizens navigate through loyalty and economically based ideals and liberal, citizen-focused, idealized progression. Growing up we’re raised to believe that as American’s we should do a few things, but most importantly, be proud to be an American. We’re proud of our freedom, we’re proud of our accomplishments, and we’re proud of our innovation and our work ethic. As discussed by Dr. Stephen Baskerville, a scholar versed in political science, in “It Happens First in America: The Brave New Welfare State”, children are growing up in a society dependent on welfare, with the sexual revolution producing many single-parent households, children of divorce, and children raised in foster care, public housing and public education. As these children age, they grow dependent on social systems and the American dream is dying. No one is motivated to make more money, to make the world greater, to make something new, when they have no incentive to work hard. Since we were only little patriots eating apple pie, we were told that democracy and freedom of opportunity was the reason America was the greatest country in the world. Which is why it’s hard to believe that Bill Gates would have revolutionized computer systems, setting up Steve Jobs to be ultimately innovative enough to introduce us to Apple products (Capitalism, Socialism, or Communism). Capitalism focuses on monetary outcomes, incentivizing its citizens to be productive members of the economy by making it the sole purpose of society. As said in Alfred Archer’s (a philosophy professor) essay “Community, Pluralism, and Individualistic Pursuits: Why Not Socialism?”, while it’s unacceptable to distinguish between class, it is acceptable to distinguish between interests, justifying the American market economy by illuminating on the freedom of American politics. However, what most supporters of capitalism and socialism have in common, is their devotion to equal opportunity. Capitalist economies emphasize money and giving opportunity to everyone in the nation to be as successful as they want to be while socialism emphasizes equality in opportunity to the masses, attempting to strip away any privilege embedded into people born into a higher caste. Socialist reformations have proven time and again that they exist to serve the people. …show more content…
Arguments for the economic policy change include that an economy that is severely money-oriented neglects their citizen’s needs, and mandates that in order to be respected, loved, worthy, and in order to keep yourself and your family alive in general, you must possess a piece of green paper, only worthy of anything because we told you so. Paul le Blanc addressed the socialist views in his essay “The Absence of Socialism in America”, by calling the “class antagonism” a contradiction to the capitalist system. Instead of giving everyone opportunity, as it’s pure theories would do, American capitalism is giving opportunity to a select few, and neglecting the majority of its nation. Currently, Europe has many successful socialist countries who focus on the needs of their citizens, proving itself to be better for the individual than capitalism. The majority of these countries have ranked drastically higher than the United States in their science, math and reading scores. Interestingly, while unemployment typically trends lower in the United States, poverty rates are significantly higher than countries that instill socialism in their economy. Perhaps the most relevant belief stemming from capitalists regards