Thread: A Key Question About Socialism

Originally Posted by Universal Mind

I don't at all support a militarized state. I support fighting crime by ending drug prohibition and the welfare state and by keeping major victimizers locked up. Republicans typically do not support a militarized state, though they do support drug prohibition and have majorly neglected 4th Amendment (search and seizure) problems that have been outrageous for many decades. What discriminatory policies do you think Republicans have implemented?

Cool. I agree with you here, and I have to concede that I can't put you in one political box. I'm also trying to understand. About a discriminatory policy, there has been a few Trump has tried to pass recently. The last one I saw was about allowing shelters for homeless people to discriminate against LGBT people, who are at higher risk of being homeless. Way to go!

Originally Posted by Universal Mind

I'm not on board with any of that. People who are against all taxation are generally anarchists. There are anarchist libertarians, but I am a minarchist. I am against abusive taxation and spending. We have to have a government, but it has to be funded with some degree of respect for people's property. The left doesn't feel that way. I question whether we could have a GoFundMe-funded government. We would have to stop giving military welfare to other countries and drop a lot of federal programs, most of which we don't need.

If you want to see something hilarious, use a desktop to search "united states federal agencies" on Wikipedia. When you get to the page, scroll all the way down slowly. You will see just how outrageously big the U.S. federal government is. I support some of it, but there is so much waste that it is laughable. We need the FBI, CIA, DHS, and other agencies, but not projects that spend millions of dollars testing the mating habits of blue lizards. The Postal Service could very easily be privatized, and so could a great deal of other agencies.

Cool information, thanks. (it would be hard funding testing of the mating habits of blue lizards since that's not very profitable).

Originally Posted by Universal Mind

I do work a 40-hours-a-week job. I have been on furlough lately because of the COVID-1984 craziness, but the furlough is about to end. Would I be working the job for free? Absolutely not. Do you honestly work for free? Seriously, what motivates you to work your job? Is it all about purpose, compassion, altruism, etc., or are you working the job to pay for food, utilities, and a little bit of fun? Can you get away with slacking off all the time at work?

Sorry, I think I was unclear. I used to work for below minimum wage for a job I loved more. Now I work a decent salary for a job I love less. But I love my life a lot more because it's more respectful. The need for money definitely motivates me working there. But the other motivators are what make me do a quality job or stay longer. At my previous job, I was working so much, I needed to change my mind so I volunteered at two different places. And I did that because it made my life more fulfilling than my grinding job.

Originally Posted by Universal Mind

By "protest," do you mean "burning down cities, blocking traffic, and assaulting random innocent people?"

By protest, I mean mostly peaceful protest, but also any protest the people find necessary when the government is murdering its people (ex. police brutality). The right so adamantly wants to keep their right to guns so that they can defend themselves against the government. What will you do if the government becomes full socialist? Will you allow it or go do peaceful protest, or violent protest perhaps? (but maybe you don't support the right to guns to be able to form militias in defense against the government in the first place).

Originally Posted by Universal Mind

I am very concerned about where your government is headed. "Free" healthcare took your country in a dangerous direction. Now your government gets to decide what medications fit budget concerns and whose lives are worthy of meeting budget constraints. You better hope you don't end up with a serious medical condition. You will be waiting a dangerously long time to get major procedures. You also can't count on much medical innovation. The big medical technological breakthroughs will not be happening in Canada under the current system. That expansion of government power is what led to constraints on speech. You can be arrested and jailed for using the "wrong gender pronoun." What's next? Horrible precedents have already been set because of too much government control of the people in Canada. If things do not turn around, you will most likely be living in a totalitarian police state in 20 years.

Well, interesting. Definitely less worried than having a serious medical condition in the US. I've never heard of major issues from any of my relatives and friends with serious medical conditions with the hospitals/treatment.

We cannot be arrested and jailed for using the wrong gender pronoun. The law won't allow harassment. It's already that way, you can't harass anyone already. Now, harassment of trans people has been included and defined. If I identify as a trans woman, the government recognizes me and recognizes that someone purposefully and frequently calling me man is harassing me. There's nothing new here. You can't go around harassing people.