When Sawzaw and pdq try to use "socialism" as a pejorative, they are merely joining the horde of know-nothing parrots who don't really know what the word "socialism" means and how the system works.

One of the reasons I keep mentioning the Scandinavian countries is that they have had essentially socialist governments for quite a long time now, and it is working very well.

A point which people like Sawzaw and pdq would rather not be brought up.

We could learn a lot from the way Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark do things. Especially when you take a look at the statistics regarding such things as lack of poverty, along with nobody so rich they can BUY the government, leisure time in relation to work time, services available to the citizens (did you know that if you move to Sweden and you don't know the language, first of all, most people there can speak English, but the government will pay you to take a Swedish language course?), the very high level of education (by comparison, the U. S. should be ashamed of itself), the availability and quality of health care—and the figures on general level of happiness and satisfaction of the population.

Tell a Swede, "You pay such high taxes!" and he or she will respond, "Yes, our taxes are high compared to yours, but look what we get for it!"

We really should study them to see how they do it.

"America is the greatest country in the world!!"

I don't think so, and anyone who does needs to walk around the block a few times, see a bit of the world, and get a clue.

Don Firth