why police and fire departments are not socialism

One individual can't fight a forest fire, a flood, an invading army, or a rioting mob. Is it about control? In todays United States, there are a plethora of government agencies handing out all sorts of benefits to almost anyone who asks. Thus all three have occasioned political contestation for as long as there have been politics. This is also true for several other social, collective resources: -Is the Post Office socialist? By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Yet another question in this realm of productive processes is, for industries that we decide should be more privately and less publicly ordered, which private parties should do the ordering? Often, if capitalists arent induced to make investments through business subsidies and other incentives, they simply will refuse to invest. All modern developed economies, and the states that establish and enable them, have public and private sectors, state apparatuses and market mechanisms, and so on. Good. We interact with millions of Americans each week, publishing numerous articles each day and promoting them through vast social media and email networks. So if youre a fan, and like calling everything the government (and in turn, we collectively) owns socialism, then consider this: If we each own the military, the bombs, bullets, tanks, and so on, then you know what that means, right? Its much similar to the age old arguments of fruits and vegetables. Abolish the postal system, the police, and the military: all social. As he recently said: When you go to your public library, when you call your fire department or the police department, what do you think youre calling? Regardless of the type of society one lives in there will always be a place where you work, a 'workplace'. This isnt surprising. are not, nor were they ever, socialist countries. Does it increase our subordination to market discipline or offer us more freedom from its demands? Much of the United States is already socialistalmost all of the bad parts, for example. Because fighting invaders or a necessary foreign war requires a national public effort. Why Are So Many Young People Dying Suddenly? Every modern country has roads, public schools and police officers, that doesn't make them inherently socialist. Trucks do the most damage to the roadways, and the public shoulders the cost of the repairs while the shipping industry turns a profit. And in the US military everyone pledges to support one another no matter what. The cooperative government has control over the economy. Only the state should have the power to incarcerate people, in conditions and terms set by judges, juries, and legislators working within a constitutional framework. And things could hardly be otherwise, for all productive economic activity proceeds on the basis of rules, and rules are the province of collective decision-making politics., Second, note that Bernie Sanders, whose frontrunner status in seeking the US Presidency is what has occasioned the socialist renewal, does not call himself a socialist or even a democratic socialist. He calls himself a Democratic Socialist. And as the capital letters indicate, thats not a generic predicate term, its a proper name as different in grammatical form from mere socialist as Robert Barone is from robber baron.. Something else? If they were socialist, each firefighter would own a part of their respective company. These are the kinds of things that economists and politicians consider regularly. Some of them may even be tempted to bribe local police and judges to steer more customers into their institutions. Which takes us straight to the third and final dimension I proposed earlier for unpacking economic questions in getting clear about socialism the output dimension. For more than 30 years, he has researched radical left, Marxist, and terrorist movements and their covert influence on mainstream politics. Anything not attributable to human creation, he argued, belonged properly to everyone Gods gift to all of His children and so any wealth generated by such things should be distributed among all. You can easily fact check why are dalmatians associated with fire departments by examining the linked well-known sources. The House That Low Information VotersBuilt. Indeed each one has. Was FDRs Second Bill of Rights socialist, then? There are many variations on the theme, but my favorite one lists no less than fifty-five ostensibly socialist programs whose only commonality is that Uncle Sam carries them all out. If we can remove socialist governmental control and corruption from these vital sectors, expect to see an economic boom; massively cheaper health, housing, and utility costs; and a large increase in quality of life for the nations elderly and chronically illand the rest of us. He was correct. Madison argued that state power extends to issues that "concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State." Nowhere in the. Some could be privately run for profit. You have to pay a fare to use public transportation. No. The same might be said about Milton Friedman or Richard Nixon, who as noted above pushed for a guaranteed incomes for all grounded in citizenship. Not least because so many now seem to have so many distinct things in mind when they have anything definite in mind as they name-check socialism and its many putative adherents. And by industry, I mean anything capable of providing an income. For if some people disproportionately benefit relative to others under productive arrangements that are primarily socially or publicly determined as are ours by our publicly promulgated and enforced property law, contract law, employment law, business law, tax law, banking law, etc. Some of them sadly have widespread public support, even among many self-proclaimed conservatives.. Unless, that is, we perhaps count Donald Trump, who is said to have designs to convey public lands to favored associates of his own a kleptocratic form of crony socialism familiar to post-Soviet Eastern Europe throughout the 1990s. It is intriguing, in this connection, again to contrast Senator Sanderss vision to Donald Trumps. Who presently benefits cui bono? Are Fire Departments Socialist? It can all be a bit daunting. It is also a movement to which many people you know and admire either belong or belonged: for example, Martin Luther King, Coretta Scott King, Upton Sinclair, Michael Harrington, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib. However, such reforms have only been won with the support of direct, mass struggles against employers. When it comes to Socialism, I thinkconservatives have finally thrown the word around so frequently that it has indeed lost all meaning. Hydro and wind endanger natural habitats.). [deleted] 4 yr. ago [removed] MozeoSLT 4 yr. ago They are simply the collective defense mechanisms that any free society needs to protect its citizens rights and property. Socialism and capitalism are economic models that concern themselves primarily with what's done with the surplus product created by profitable industries. This is also relatively true for fire departments. If your government takes a small amount of tax to defend you from forceshuman or naturalthat could destroy your property, steal your wealth, or take your life, thats liberty. And it calls for the use of various financial mechanisms to do so, as does my forthcoming book on this subject. They were hardline fascists in every way. These highways were funded almost entirely with public funds. For the sake of concision, then, let me propose what I think is a reasonably straightforward method of terminological housekeeping that can keep both our words and our thoughts a bit clearer than they now seem to be. Furthermore under proper separation of powers, these functions should be carried out at the state and local level, not the federal level. You simply take what you need when you need it. With that in mind, a road does not generate a profit, the police do not participate in the market, students do not receive wages for their "work" and libraries do not typically sell products in order to become wealthy. You pay a water bill based on your use. Once the scientific reasoning was laid out for what makes a fruit a fruit, and the same for vegetables, the issue was all but settled. The theory is that under this system, labor cannot be exploited. After all, if our country wasalready at least partly socialist, then all we wouldhave to do iskeep gradually expanding government. If you Google Social Security hmm Social Security and socialism, among the first hits youll find are recollections of Republican and other attacks upon FDR, Social Security, and the New Deal more generally as socialist. Youll find similar claims saying the same thing about Harry Truman, JFK and LBJin connection with things like Medicare and Medicaid things we now cherish and all take for granted. If so, then ownership of what? That is precisely why calling an entire economy, or an entire view about how an economy should look, simply socialist, individualist, or capitalist is ridiculous. The following is a letter to the editor that was published in the Loveland Reporter-Herald in April 2019, reproduced in its entirety. However, police are needed to produce any cooperative society, so they are in more of a gray area than the others every form of government you can dream up will have some need to enforce the rules, hence Law Enforcement. Anarchy is a form of government where everyone is responsible for their own protection, so no police are necessary in an anarchist state.. It is the collective production and provision of a society to meet its own economic needs. Why does this happen? The Obama administration has been very clear about keeping the status quo when it comes to taxpayer-funded fire departments. So long as the fundamental structures of the economy remain unchanged, state action will disproportionately benefit capitalist interests at the expense of everything else. People that have thought much about economics tend to have a dispassionate view of the word. This is hardly "socialism" because if it were, voters would never have any say at all in what police and firemen do. Yes, no, no, Bernie. Roads and bridges is a tricky one. People pay taxes and the government then gives it to others,. -Are gas and electric lines socialist? Socialism is about redistribution of wealth. The great American economist and social thinker Henry George, like the great Revolutionary War era patriot Thomas Paine, thought what Ill call the Alaska Principle could be generalized. At a fire or medical incident, most police officers perform only security or very basic first aid. Presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) looks on during the second Democratic primary debate of the 2020 presidential campaign season hosted by NBC News at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, Florida, June 27, 2019. The United States, there are a plethora of government agencies handing out all of... Public support, even among many self-proclaimed conservatives not be exploited functions should be carried at! Contrast Senator Sanderss vision to Donald Trumps frequently that it has indeed lost all meaning fighting. Have to pay a fare to use public transportation or a necessary foreign war a... Are dalmatians associated with fire departments and judges to steer more customers into institutions... Our subordination to market discipline or offer us more freedom from why police and fire departments are not socialism demands associated fire... Media and email networks these highways were funded almost entirely with public funds one no! 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