From Daniel Coates These days we hear that socialist word thrown around a lot and usually directed at Obama and Democrats as a negative so it got me curious to see what the founding fathers and writers of our constitution thought about socialism. First lets define socialism as an economic and political theory advocating public or common ownership and cooperative management of the means of production and allocation of resources.-wiki So did the founding fathers promote any socialist system of public or common ownership and cooperative management ? Well lets take the Government itself as a prime example: 1) the government is not owned by anyone and we elect our president and representatives and have the power to fire (impeach) them. Each individual of voting age has the same vote power regardless of wealth so the government is a socialist system of public and common ownership and co-operative management. 2) The government is authorized by the constitution to collect taxes to pay for programs the government sees as benefiting the citizens welfare and providing for security. These programs do not just benefit specific groups but most benefit and are enjoyed by the majority of people. So our tax system was set up to be a socialist system that we all contribute to (supposedly) for the benefit of all citizens. The founding fathers directed in the constitution certain government responsibilities such as military and national security: 1) the Military and national security is under direct authority of the president we elect so by proxy we have a common ownership of the military and national security and it is a socialist program that belongs to the citizens for the benefit of citizens. 2) Public roads, bridges, libraries, postal service and fire stations were programs designed by the founding fathers to benefit citizens and as these grew taxes were collected to pay for them making all citizens common owners of these public works. So I think it is fair to say that our founding fathers believed that socialist programs that benefited the majority of citizens were constitutional and ethical and almost every president and congress has supported some socialist programs and have added new ones as the need arose. That is not to say our founding fathers wanted a completely socialist country and these programs have generally been done in moderation with a balance of socialist programs with capitalist programs to support free markets. I have read the constitution many times and I can find no where that says our government is just limited to one certain political ideology and it appears that the founding fathers supported both socialist and capitalist programs equally. There is also nothing that I can find in the constitution that prevents future presidents and congress from expanding and creating new socialist and capitalist programs based on their authority to provide for the welfare of all citizens. If anyone can find a section of the constitution that prohibits socialist programs or can show me where our government is required to be conservative or capitalist please let me know. If you disagree with certain socialist programs remember we own those programs collectively and each of us has a vote to help determine which if any programs we want for our benefit so make your vote count. So now that you know the founding fathers supported some socialist programs does it change your mind about socialism ?
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 19:12:01 +0000
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