On an upcoming episode of mtvU’s “Stand In” liberal comedian turned political commentator Bill Maher will lecture a UCLA political science class on the merits of socialism.
Maher, host of Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO, will give students his perspective on government, “spitting in the face of right-wing critics,” according to MTV, and arguing that, “We already have Socialism in America.”
Maher better known among conservatives for calling former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin a c**t and recently for claiming, “Ann Romney has never gotten her ass out of the house to work.”
In a preview of the show, which is set to air on Monday, May 7 at 12 pm EST, Maher claims, “All countries in the world today are hybrids between capitalism and socialism – all successful democracies in the West, anyway.”
Maher points to a number of our country’s entitlement programs to claim we already have socialism in America, therefore we should embrace certain aspects of the ideology.
“The government does nothing but pass out money to people, but they hate that word socialism,” he says.
We can only assume the “they” Maher repeatedly cites in the preview is referring to conservatives.
Of course Maher’s reasoning is an overly simplistic way of looking at politics and economics.
Just because we have some government involvement in the economy, does not mean we should support a system where government becomes responsible for every aspect of our lives.
Perhaps the most ignorant statement Maher makes while trying to educate the students is when he tries to differentiate between” American socialism” and “European socialism” by claiming the difference is that “theirs works.”
Ignoring America’s history or success without socialism, let us look at a few of the ways in which European Socialism “works” in areas Maher mentions:
Greece has spent the last several years in and out of default because of their inability to pay their debts.
Italy and Spain are also on the verge of defaulting and will likely require bailouts soon from their European counterparts.
All of this means that the Euro currency continues to lose value, and Europeans must work harder for less.
Furthermore, on the issue of Healthcare, a study earlier this year found four patients die of thirst or malnutrition in UK hospitals every single day.
Almost every new medical innovation is discovered in America because government price controls limit research funding and medical access in European countries.
In other words, European socialism does “work” better than “American socialism,” but only if the definition of success is the creation of a less wealthy, less free and less healthy population.
MTV ought to choose guest lecturers more wisely in the future. Empty indoctrination doesn’t benefit the students on screen or the viewers.
About Allen Ginzburg
For a second, there while reading your article, I thought I was living in 1960…
Of course our current capitalist system is infused with socialist elements! Saying anything else is ignorant. Of course socialism has its merits! It evicts poverty, acts as an equalizer, and regulates our government. America’s current economic state can be traced back to Clinton’s repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, government deregulation that removed provisions arranged by FDR to prevent speculation and, basically, to stop everything that has happened on Wall Street in the last ten years! Maybe a highly regulated government does restrict liberty in small amounts, but I don’t think avaricious Republicans should have the liberty to exploit the lower class. And the way you write about socialist systems in Europe, as if capitalism is superior! Give it a few years; America will be in the same sorry state as Greece. Have you no recollection of July? Do you not remember when we, too, were on the verge of defaulting? Why do you think that we are better than Italy? Because as an American, you think that endorsing anything other than capitalism is unpatriotic. But in fact, it is the materialism, the unwillingness to lend assistance to the downtrodden, and the force-feeding of religious ideology that opposes what this country is supposed to be about. Our founding fathers’ philosophy had socialist elements. They believed that “essentials” should be supplied to all by the government. They believed in the freedom of religion. They believed in living modestly. And as for the “less healthy” aspect to socialism, Switzerland has the best healthcare system in the world, and they are a socialist nation.
Congratulations. You wrote the most ignorant thing I read all week.
+1. Allen, not only did you right a really bad article, it didn’t even address the point Maher made. You addressed a point you made up. Maher never said government should be in every inch of our lives. Maybe you should do a little research about the person before you “write” an article attacking them. If you took an hour out of your busy schedule you could watch one of his past episodes and see that he is all about government getting their asses out of people’s lives and focus on directly helping them, ie. paying for police, fire, paramedic, teachers, healthcare, SEC, etc. The things that save our lives and protect our bank accounts. Other than that he wants government to stay the hell away.
It’s really easy to call someone’s comments “simplistic” when you’re ignorant to what they’re talking about.
If you want to argue Maher’s merits, then be a real writer and and argue what he says, god knows he says some pretty asinine things sometimes. If you wrote for a real organization, this “article” wouldn’t make it past an editor’s desk. You went to “Blue”, quit making it look bad, god knows our sports teams have been doing enough of that lately.
The feeling is mutual. A government-centered system “evicts poverty”? Tell that to the people Cuba, N. Korea, China etc. Yes, people there are more “equal”, in the sense that they are mostly equally in poverty.
That is a complete distortion of what caused our current state. Speculation was a symptom, not the cause of our current ills. The problem was government-backing and forcing the creation of mortgages that were not sustainable under poor economic circumstances. If companies were allowed to fail, instead of being bailed out, then we would not be in this state.
It is true that America is on pace to reach the same level as Greece, but that is precisely because of the Socialist aspects of our government. We were never really close to “defaulting” in the same way Greece was. What happened is a portion of our government, the Republicans, chose to take a stand and say we cannot continue endless deficits and their method was refusing to raise the debt ceiling without a deal to cut spending. Yes, capitalism is superior and all the statistics and trends prove it. The mistake you make is assuming that by creating dependence you are somehow helping the poor, when in fact you are condemning them to a life of poverty.
General statements about the founding fathers will get you nowhere. Almost none of the founders believed that government should be the primary engine for the economy, most believed in individual responsibility and liberty. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were some of our richest presidents, so I have no idea where “living modestly” came from.
Finally, Switzerland is a tiny country that can’t really be compared to the United States. You have to look to the UK, Germany or Canada, and our health system is far superior. Also, once again you ignored the innovations that we provide. Reality is that the belief that a repeatedly failed ideology like socialism is somehow superior to capitalism is the reason that we continue to move over a cliff from which there is no return.
Allen, your country, the USA, went bankrupt in 1933. but since that modern day capitalism is simply the end of the line as far as improving the way any society live on any planet anywhere , lets forget that. Lets also forget that WW2 was basically a winning lottery ticket for the USA which rescued it from the Great Depression and give it an infrastructure advantage for decades that is now gone.
you say that China isnt evicting poverty under socialism. wait 20 years and compare the two countries. lets also forget about the fact that China bank rolls the USA nowadays.
now as far as the 15.7 trillion debt, are you saying that giving medicine to sick children and old people created that debt? or that it was created by socialist politicians?
let me tell you something about National Security and Healthcare – they are THE SAME THING. when you send soldiers to protect people in USA from bombs and bullets from abroad, but dont protect them at home from illness, disease and injury – whats the point of sending soldiers anywhere? the ultimate purpose for the existence of most expensive and advanced fighter jet in the US Airforce is to save the lives and protect the health of the citizens of the USA. For a country that worships the actions of its military to deny the citizens they fight for access to free health care is an insult to military service and makes the whole thing pointless. but on top of that irony throw in the fact that alot of the illness and diseases are caused by avoidable environmental things like smog while living a life FREE to die of stress because you cant get health care to cover your illness because you have a pre existing condition. what does that mean before we talk about the for profit healthcare system. PRE EXISTING CONDITION??? what does that mean? that means a SICK person. a sick person who soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq are fighting to protect from death BUT that person cant get the treatment they need back home. if you dont see that as hypocrisy, i dont know what hypocrisy is.
Now the for profit system that we have the FREEDOM to choose to be part of or have no healthcare at all. how naive does a person have to be to think that private enterprise care about you at all in anyway? if you are SICK, youre not allowed in the building of a health insurance company. they dont want you. if you have a pre existing contract with them they will try everything they got to not honour it. i cant even begin to think of the reaction people in USA would have if it was revealed that the major health insurance companies were arab owned which they could easily be in the future. or owned by the chinese SOCIALIST government? you think US citizens would buy health insurance from those companies then? why not? because they dont TRUST them i imagine.
my question to you is this. are you opposed to free universal health care to all US citizens because of financial reasons in the current moment or is this the position you would have no matter what. lets say the USA found huge natural resource mines and built new technologies that they export. lets say the USA is also in peace time and at the current level of taxation makes a $5 trillion surplus every year. would you in that situation still be opposed to free health care for everyone when it is easily affordable? if your answer is still no then you might have something wrong with you. you would also be an embarrassment to the religion your were most likely born into, a religion that was created in pre islam Arabia before being exported to where you are know with the rest of european culture. but as you imply, the rest of the world knows nothing.
good response Allen.