How close are we to socialism?

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago, the meaning of the word “socialist” carries different connotations between generations that can remember the event and those that can’t.

The majority of college students today, who were born around the time Reagan told Mr. Gorbachev to “tear down this wall,” do not have the luxury of knowing how a socialist (or even communist) regime starts up in a society.

The reason socialist ideals are able to rise out of societies that wouldn’t appear vulnerable to a government shift is because socialism doesn’t happen at the government level. Socialism begins in the real world when people entertain the idea that Uncle Sam knows how to spend money better than citizens.

You didn’t have to see the Berlin Wall come down to know that when the government is in control of the money, it’s like watching your two friends try to open an all-night pie shop: It’s a nice sentiment and it even sounds kind of cool, but let’s face it, Uncle Sam isn’t exactly a Kelley School graduate.

Socialism typically rises out of an economic crisis similar to the one we are in right now.

With the credit and housing crunches coming into full swing, it was not difficult to convince Americans that they no longer know how money needs to be spent. Without wasting any time, the fiscal progressives in government have created stimulus after stimulus claiming to be the saviors of the economy, when in reality the hole they dig is far bigger than they will admit to us or even themselves.

Remember that original stimulus bill that was supposed to single-handedly get our economy back on its feet? The original price tag that was thrown around by the media was about $789 billion.

I never thought I would say this, but I wish the government would spend only $789 billion. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office puts the probable 10-year estimate of this bill at around $3.27 trillion (with a “T”) if spending increases are made permanent, something that’s likely under a Democrat-controlled Congress.

Anyone with firsthand knowledge of a socialist society would not allow this kind of government spending to occur, and that is exactly the problem. The number of people who have actually seen socialism destroy a society is growing smaller and smaller. The necessary fear of government control is slipping away from the American mindset.
 
Popular culture has turned communism into a joke over the past 20 years. America has developed the mentality that the greatest economy in the world would never succumb to ideals similar to those of Joseph Stalin or Karl Marx.

It does seem a bit ludicrous to think of a stereotypical communist society existing in a post-Cold War era.

However, one question must be asked: Since communism is only a skip and a jump away from socialism, how many trillions of dollars is our government allowed to spend before we get there?