Funny his socialism seems to sound like a negative word in the us, while capitalism has the sale bad connotation in the mind of many Europeans !
I mean, they’re kinda right. Taking money out of society to give to the rich isn’t socialism.
Years ago, when I started getting over my conservative upbringing, I was telling a friend–in an awkward incoherent manner–how I thought we needed to radically reform healthcare in the US.
She detected my mental struggle and said, “Socialism is not a dirty word”.
That simple phrase cut through my conflicted brain. It’s embarrassing how indoctrinated I was, and how I needed permission from a smart person to just accept the obvious.
I wonder how many other doofuses out there are like I was. They just need the right phrase at the right time from someone they respect.
This always gets me… some Americans will bitch about gas prices till the fucking cows come home. Yet they have some of the most heavily subsidized fuel in the world.
America is also a car centric nation. Oil and gas companies have spent decades preventing any sort of alternative travel options to traverse the country. Ever wonder why the US has some of the worst passenger rail lines in the world or why every major US city doesn’t have some sort of functioning mass transit system?
But to your point, yeah some of my neighbors won’t shut the fuck up about the goddamned gas prices.
Canada is a great example of a car centric nation that doesn’t subsidize (as heavily) fuel.
Shit, in my province, from my city to the next large city (over 300k) is 340km away. Just one road small towns scattered in between
Edit to clairify: subsidizing is dumb but also not investing in rapid transport between hubs is equally as dumb.
Because it’s never cheap enough to traverse enough of the land to live in one of our beautiful, cookie-cutter sprawling suburbs and work in the city like many do.
The average American drives so much I think they have forgotten that other ways to live are even possible.
This always blows my mind when talking to a yank (as someone in the uk)
The last time I looked we pay more a litre than they do a gallon.
1.50 per L for me in an oil production province in canada… I can imagine it’s significantly worse for you guys
None of those statements are socialism