02:15:04 am on
Tuesday 19 Mar 2024

American Socialism
AJ Robinson

Back, when the huge debate was raging about the reform of health care in the US, many politicians and pundits were ranting about socialized medicine. It was as if socialized medicine was bad. I had to wonder, if it's so bad, why do most industrialized nations of the world have it and their citizens healthier and live longer than men and women in the USA?

Still, everybody's entitled to his or her opinion.

With that view in mind, I got to thinking: how about we get rid of all the evil forms of socialism that are polluting our nation?

My daughter is now eighteen. She's no longer going to be in public school. My wife and I have no other school age children.

We, my wife and I, demand not to pay any taxes that go to those socialistic schools in our country, anymore. Why should we pay for the education of children in families other than our own? How does that benefit us?

If those parents want to educate their children, let them pay for it. I hear private schools are outstanding, not that my wife and I could ever hope to afford to send our daughter to one. Despite me being an engineer and earning a good living, private schools are only for the children of the rich.

I've never had a fire in any house I've ever owned. I demand a refund on all the money I've paid for fire departments over the years. What good have they done me? If I have a fire, let them come put it out, and then present me with a bill.

I've only needed the police twice in my life, and they frankly did a poor job in both situations. I really don't see the need for my tax dollars going to pay them any longer. The rich have their private security systems and guards; I'm sure they'd agree with me that the police are unnecessary.

The government gives huge tax breaks, incentives and virtual giveaways to companies that make billions of dollars each year. We need to end those forms of socialism as well. After all, if we can't each chip in a few dollars a month to help our fellow Americans have some simple, basic health care - something to help them live regular, ordinary lives - then we should certainly end these other kinds of socialism. After all, some of them benefit the few at the cost of the many, and where's the sense in that?

So, let's get government out of the business of, well, everything. If we just do that, everything will be fine. After all, doing that we'll cut our taxes enormously, and we all know what happens when we cut the taxes on the rich and big corporations: they make wise investments. Of course, cutting the taxes in the poor just leads to drugs, drinking and more illegitimate babies, but once we sweep away things like unemployment insurance, which just encourages people to be lazy, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and all those other evil institutions, we'll have the perfect nation.

Won't we save money, if we do?

Combining the gimlet-eye of Philip Roth with the precisive mind of Lionel Trilling, AJ Robinson writes about what goes bump in the mind, of 21st century adults. Raised in Boston, with summers on Martha's Vineyard, AJ now lives in Florida. Working, again, as an engineeer, after years out of the field due to 2009 recession and slow recovery, Robinson finds time to write. His liberal, note the small "l," sensibilities often lead to bouts of righteous indignation, well focused and true. His teen vampire adventure novel, "Vampire Vendetta," will publish in 2020. Robinson continues to write books, screenplays and teleplays and keeps hoping for that big break.

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