"There is nothing I write here I would not be ashamed to say directly to your face, so I'm not hiding behind a computer screen. I love the concept of Socialism, but I changed face when I realized it thrives upon a utopian society, and of course my beliefs cause me to be labeled with stereotypes. Perhaps I am guilty of extending stereotypes, as well. "
That's exactly what I was saying; in my post I was asking you to explain exactly what you meant by socialism, for you seemed to be using it as a vague catchall term that is easy to throw around as a source of blame for any societal ill that one doesn't agree with.
Ok, so what's with the personal attacks on me just because I had the nerve to spell out etceteras? I don't understand peoples' motivations sometimes, and if you're going to dole out hatred toward others just because they have the nerve to appear intelligent, then I am not the one with a problem. I don't see striving toward intellectualism as a negative prospect, and I fear for a society when this distain for intellectualism runs rampant. Don't you think that if I were trying to "look down my nose" at you, I would have at least used correct grammatical form and included the commas between the etceteras?
Oh, and as far as "free" public schools go; your education is paid for by other peoples' tax money (you didn't pay taxes in grade school, did you?). This reallocation of resources so that one doesn't have to pay for a social service is the ESSENCE of Socialism. What the Soviet Socialists did wrong was a failure to privatize industry and agriculture, thereby not allowing healthy competition, and then the resources dumped into industry and agriculture eventually outweighed production. Pure Socialism doesn't work and neither does pure Capitalism, and that is why we (and Canada and England and France and every other Western civilization) have some aspects of both.
Now I suppose you're going to bash me for using logic?