Most Americans are socialists, yet deny it

socialism - A political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole (ie government).

Most of the socialists in the nation deny they believe in socialism, yet they want government to own or control everything of importance and to take care of them from cradle to grave. They seem to think that noting important can be done unless the person(s) doing it receive a government paycheck.

Examples of socialism in the US include:

Airports
Airport security
Ambulance service
Business loans
Business regulations
Convention centers
Education (K through pHd)
Disaster loans
Entertainment (Shakespeare Festival)
Exercise classes
Fire departments
Gyms
Health care (including Medicaid, Medicare, ObamaCare, PHS, and VA)
Health insurance
Highways and highway maintenance
Housing (subsidized housing, homeless shelters, etc.)
Libraries
Museums
Nutrition (SNAP, soup kitchens, WIC, etc.)
Occupational licensing
Parks (city, county, state, national)
Postal service
Recreation (utah Summer Games)
Retirement homes
Product safety
Sanitation services (trash collection, etc.)
Senior centers
Social Security
Student loans & grants
Swimming pools
Theaters
etc.

Are the above functions important? Absolutely! Do the persons providing those services really need to be drawing a government pay check? Or, can they be performed just as well, maybe better in the private sector (businesses, charities, trade associations, etc.) if government would simply get out of the way?

I don't think most people really know what socialism is.

"Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy." — Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

"Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it." — Thomas Sowell

"Socialism is just another form of tyranny." — Walter E. Williams

"Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain." — Claude-Frédéric Bastiat

"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened." — Norman Thomas, Socialist Party presidential candidate 1936-68, Cofounder of the American Civil Liberties Union

"The main vice of capitalism is the uneven distribution of prosperity. The main vice of socialism is the even distribution of misery." — Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

"Democracy is indispensable to socialism." — Vladimir Lenin

"Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude." — Alexis de Tocqueville

"The problem with Socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." — Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister