American Socialist Programs

As much as the United States has fought against Socialism and the like (which it lost horribly), it needs to adopt certain principles of the Socialist ideals (more than it already has).

Though I'm not the first to suggest it, I think it would do a lot of good if the United States were to adopt it.

Socialist nations, and nations like Israel, have had for a long time mandatory service lengths at a certain point in their citizens age. What I'm proposing has been said before, but it hasn't been said enough. I'm proposing that the United States government enact a series of laws that would require, and fund, a two year mandatory service length after high school graduation. Whether it be civic duties, military, Peace Corps, or the like; the 18 year old citizen would need to serve their two year service length in whichever way they saw fit to. If they were to drop out of high school their civic service begins the day after so they aren't wasted youths. The benefits to the United State would be amazing. The amount of things that could get done with a large amount of government program-sponsored civic workers would be staggering. It is literally a perfect plan. The workers would get free food service, and free board if they were moved from their hometown, and when their service would expire they would be issued a check with a large sum of money ($10,000 to $20,000+ depending on inflations of the future), or gain a full-ride scholarship to any college in the nation.

Now, funding for this would be the main excuse not to enact it. But the way to get the needed funding for these things would be to reform the tax laws and make it harder for everyone to avoid taxation (especially the rich). Also, I would thing a national sales tax would easily replace the income tax. I would think it would only need to be 4.5 or 5.5% to encourage spending, and to stave oppositions. Though I think the opposition would be high in areas with already high county, or state sales taxes. I would also think corporations that provide civil services would like to invest in this program, though it may backfire if corporate agendas get in the way more than they already do. I, as an opposing candidate to church tax-exemption think that we should start a church property tax at around 25%, though the opposition to that would be monumental, but the income advantages would be just as monumental. In my opinion, church tax exemption is not a separation of church and state but an agreement between them. With those things I could see the funding problems for these projects to be easily overcome. Also, I find that bureaucratic jobs could easily be eliminated by this. The senior members of the bureau would be bureaucrats, but everyone under them would be mandatory-volunteers (oxymoron) without pay, a large sum of government money saved and put towards this beneficial program.

On another funding note, I would love if Marijuana legalized and taxed by the government, and imported. I see that as a funding leap, but I also think drug lords would have a fit even if they were the only suppliers of the drug. The only reason I think this hasn't happened is because drug lords have certain congressmen on their 'hit-list' if they were to ever do this. It really is a great funding opportunity, but an almost impossible one to enact.

If that was ever to be enacted, I think the income should go to the funding of school programs that teach civic duty and life education; a severely lacking area of education. Because out of high school students only a tenth of them approximately actually know how to live and learn out in the world on their own. It would be a step forward in education of our youth.

These programs would help the United States in their own way, but with the way things are going they will never be enacted unless a strong enough case and strong enough politicians are in the offices they need to be in.

By the way, the fear of Socialism, Communism, and Marxist ideals is outdated and stupid. The Cold War is over. Communism has failed in Cuba, North Korea, and most importantly, the Soviet Union. China is also just a state-run Capitalism. Get over you fear of it or get the fuck out of America. Plus, America is a transitional country. We're in between Socialism and Capitalism. Think of all the public programs, from Social Security (look at that, Social Security), to public schools, fire, police, parks, and all the things funded directly by tax money for everyone within the country (yes, even the 'illegals'). It's all Socialist. The only thing capitalist is the business world, because most hospitals are private, because you pay for their services. Yeah, I'm done.