Does supporting ssn and medicare make you a socialist?

I have a friend who teaches economics. He is always at odds with an anthropolgy professor who thinks that ever word that comes out of Obama's mouth is pure gold. One day they were debating, and the anthro prof thought he was about to be called the 'C' word....and so he said to the econ prof, "so...you think I'm a communist because I support this and that? Huh, huh? You think I'm a communist???" The econ professor replied, "you wouldn't make a pimple on a communist's ass" <s>


In the late 1940's, Ayn Rand before the United States House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). While Rand was extremely anti-communist and a "friendly witness" of the committee, she nonetheless felt the committee was superficial, and inept at identifying the philosophical roots of communism.

So the statement "does supporting ssn and medicare make you a socialist" is equally superficial, and is about as valid as saying I have a lot in common with Hitler because neither of us actually nationalized Krupp steel.

A country's philosphy determines its history - our national has been a mixed bag of free, semi-free, and not-so-free market economics for years, each with its own site of underlying values on individual rights (and the distinction between what is a right and what is NOT a right) .

So to answer your question, truly supporting SSN and Medicare means adopting an economic system based on NEED. It is incompatible with the notion of a truly free society. There is no fundamental difference between that and socialism. I'm sure I don't have to remind you the disasterous consequences of the Bush administration when Bush tried to promote home ownership based on need.

The fact that you don't support Obama's policies at this time, because of the debt issue, is really immaterial.