I think this thread may be showing signs of rationality!

Now, just a couple of thoughts. MAV seems to assume that anything not authorised by the US constitution is improper. That is not correct. By way of comparison, most of what Hitler did in Germany was perfectly constitutional - if he had problems he changed the constitution(!) but nonetheless immoral.

Likewise labelling something "socialist" does not make it wrong. Many of us believe that "capitalist" is a term of abuse, but regrettably the accurate application of the insult does not necessarily establish that the thing insulted is wrong. Even a capitalist can so something right occasionally, as for example the reforms of the "Reform" party in the USA were far better than anything the democrats had on offer at that time, but by any definition I can think of Roosevelt was a capitalist.

As most systems of ethics teach us, it is wrong to take simply because one can. Yet that is what the espousal of the free market economy, without constraint, ends as. Likewise as many systems of morality teach us, it was right for Robin Hood to steal from the rich to give to the poor.