Funny innit. I didn't read them as his view of socialism but of how socialism is portrayed by others who may or may not be socialist.
To be fair near the end of the post there is the following quote ‘Bottom line is you can be a socialist and succeed in life and honour your beliefs’ . However, those numbered points are what the poster takes from comments made about Socialism posted on here, which I disagree with. TBH, it’s much ado about nothing
Eazy-e, It was a joke I used to prefer prosecco when I drank, and when I barely ad a bucket to bathe in, what did that make me?
Hmm! Rupert Murdock springs to mind! (And his media predecessors from the conception of the Union movement)
Are Lancashire playing? I hope Andersen is fit for us though… As for the op, I see the point. Right wing rhetoric has made socialism a dirty word as though it should be avoided. Because elitist capitalism has done the country so well, the last thirteen years has left us where we are now… It is currently one of few times in history in which the future for our kids doesn’t look guaranteed to be better for them than we had. I have a lad 16 this year. I turned 16 in 1999. I reckon my late teens and early twenties were bloody ace, nearly killing myself in a car crash aside… There was a sense of optimism and things looked bright then. There were opportunities. I’ve got to 40, have a wife and family, own a mortgaged house etc, and I don’t see how my kids will be able to achieve the same thing. How on earth are this generation of kids going to become financially independent home owners? And even I didn’t get uni grants, I’ve never had a time where decent houses were only three or four times the average salary, I’ve never lived, at least not as an adult, when one wage could comfortably support a family like the ones that came before me. I won’t have any opportunity to retire in my late fifties or even early sixties as so many of my mum’s generation have managed. I don’t begrudge them that - but I’ve little sympathy for the ones among them that have the attitude that they’ve worked for what they have as though they didn’t get a leg up in life that isn’t available anymore and are unwilling to pass the benefits of that on. My mother is a prime example. Owns a nice four bed detached house on a posh(ish, it’s donny…) estate that she paid less for than I did for my three bed semi ex pit house only about six years later. 15 years on from that, my house has just got back past what I paid for it in value after the value tanked just after I bought it in 2008; possibly worth 20k more, whilst my mums house is worth probably 4 times what she paid for it, no mortgage, she doesn’t work and hasn’t for years, her husband still does but is on about packing in, possibly selling up and downsizing slightly now the grandkids don’t stay as much. They’re 59… What we need is more people to battle the rhetoric and more people that have a bit more, be they millionaires or not quite, to be more fair minded. I said it on another thread a week or two back. There’s plenty of money to fairly pay everyone, to make sure no kid goes hungry, no mum has to go to a food bank, no nurse has to go on strike. The country is swimming in money. And it doesn’t need the rich to not be rich to sort it. Just a little bit fairer. The rich can still have more and the talented or qualified etc can earn more. Great. I’m not anti-success or anti-wealth. I’m anti-elitism, anti-tax avoidance and anti-needless poverty
Capitalism - anybody can be rich Communism - nobody should be rich Socialism - anybody can be rich, nobody should be poor A handy guide when talking to Americans.
Americans? I think there’s plenty over here who buy into the agenda spouted who could do with learning the difference as well.
In response to Troffs good post. In the 70s you could only borrow 2.5 times your salary for a mortgage. In comparison it's around 5 times now. Mine was paid off when I got to 55. Second house/mortgage. If I hadn't moved it would have been paid off at 45. Then I invested more into my pension..The kids of today are unlikely to be ever debt free. And retiring much later, not through choice but necessity. Thatcher (no such thing as society, misnomer or not, you choose) caused that with the right to buy council houses. Pushing up property values and the cost of renting due to supply and demand. People bought into it. I get that. So did my parents after my dad did a lot of soul searching for years as it made them better off so to speak. . Some (some but not all) of the working class who benefitted from those opportunities became selfish and moan/ed about paying higher taxes. (I'm alright Jack in a lot of cases). My lad and his partner's combined salaries got em a mortgage for a 2 bedroom apartment in london. 5.5 times combined. Its bonkers they will posibly never be debt free. And will have to keep on working to keep our generations pensions going. It's unsustainable. And until those with the deepest pockets (and I don't just mean the filthy rich) contribute more. It will only get worse. Also tbh those that say, I'll wait to start paying into a pension pot till I'm a bit older (state will make sure I'm ok) and keep on delaying . Will have a massive shock coming. Regardless of which party is in power.
