Fact Check Friday

Welcome to another Fact Check Friday. With the political season already upon us, the word socialism is often thrown out as a derogatory term. I'd like to challenge some of those beliefs with some facts:

Socialism: Why are so many baby boomers afraid of socialism, and what is it?

My take is that boomers grew up at the height of the cold war. They saw communist Russia as the big bad guy, and the U.S.S.R. definitely had a lot to be afraid of--and so did we. The U.S. "won" the cold war by outproducing and outspending the Soviet Union.

In fact, the U.S. spent about $5.5 trillion dollars on Nuclear Arsenal. Read "America's Nuclear Arsenal: $5.5 Trillion Well-Spent" from the Brookings Institution. The article doesn't actually say the money was well-spent. In fact, the U.S. still spends about 14% of its military budget on maintaining and developing its nuclear arsenal. That number equals $35 billion dollars a year. Here's an excerpt from the article:

[The amount the U.S. spends on its nuclear program] exceeded the combined total federal spending on education, training, employment, and social services; agriculture; natural resources and the environment; general science and space research; community and regional development (including disaster relief); law enforcement; and energy production and regulation.

Unfortunately "winning" meant that our economy shifted to an emphasis on consumerism. Read, "Cold War Roots of U.S. Economic Problems."

The Cold War also led to the Red Scare, and fear-based political rhetoric dominated the arena. Take a look at "Red Scare" from the History Channel to find out more.

So what is socialism. According to Google's dictionary, socialism is defined as, "a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole."

I won't get into the pros and cons of socialism and other isms, but I will say that aspects of socialism work well in aspects of government. The extremely wealthy benefit quite a bit from the U.S. Federal and Local Government. The police, military, and government regulations keep them wealthy. It seems fair that a high percentage of their incomes are taxed at a higher rate and invested in other public services.

Also, socialism on smaller scales--such as in a church body--seems to work quite well. In the book of Acts, early Christians shared everything they had in common. Acts 4:32 says, "And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them."

Though boomers love to call people socialist, they're actually quite fond of socialist aspects of the government. Social security and medicare, two socialist programs, are the most popular government programs along with crime fighting.

So, baby boomers and others who think socialism is scary, when others have positive things to say about socialism, maybe try listening and be willing to challenge your beliefs a little through research rather than gut reactions based on your preconceived notions of socialism.