Calling even the most extreme interpretation of "liberal" proposals in the U.S. "socialism" is like calling a plantation owner being required to give his slaves water "socialism."
Also, I'm sick of this fucker's face on YouTube every time it serves up an ad. I'm hearing his idiotic intro in my sleep now.
Nobody is demonizing success, what they are (rightfully) demonizing is the use of power and privilege by the successful to undermine the oppurtunities to succeed for others.
Among the many things I detest is how they've equated "putting the tax code back the way it was even under Reagan" with somehow breaking down mansion doors and stealing all the cash (as if the rich have a ton of cash stuffed in their homes for anything other than decoration).
40 years of lowering taxes on the wealthiest Americans and there's no increase in actual jobs or real wages. Huh. Fancy that.
It's almost impossible to argue for returning to a more progressive tax rate without someone saying that we shouldn't steal money from people that earn it, as if they deserve that money. They can't even fathom that there is something systematically wrong when a person can make more money in a day than the average person makes in a year.
The problem with socialism is that it creates people that present as victims and feel entitled to a lot of free stuff paid for by others. Take Thomas Peterffy for example. He thinks that he can just parachute into America, take advantage of all the benefits of our capitalist society, and feels he need not pay a dime of taxes. The fact that his clients are paying half the rate on their zero sum trading than an ordinary worker will pay on labor that _creates_ wealth is apparently still too much for this horribly entitled socialist creep. So yeah, socialism has some problems. Please stop practicing it, Mr. Peterffy.