Rich or poor, how do you define socialism?

The recent attacks on candidates as socialists is as silly as it is mistaken. If “socialism” means that richer Americans pay more in taxes than they receive in services, while poorer Americans receive more in services than they pay in taxes, then America has been a “socialist” country for 100-plus years.

Americans who have a greater income, have more money to purchase goods, own more expensive homes, and pay more in income, sales, and property taxes than less affluent Americans. On the other hand, Americans with a lower income and less cash who live in marginal housing should, but often do not, get the same level of services as their more affluent neighbors.

While America purports to follow the hackneyed phrase, “From each according to his/her abilities, to each according to his/her needs,” in the final analysis, it is the rich who get more, often at the expense of the poor.

Richard Sciaroni

Grass Valley