Socialism

I think Keith Olbermann has been reading Radio Free Mike:

... So when every Alaskan gets a monthly check based on the oil sold by companies “renting” the oil from their state, that’s a Georgist arrangement, whether Sarah Palin knows it or not.

It sounds like socialism, and it is. But so is income tax, which socializes part of your paycheck. The difference between George’s socialism and the sort of socialism we practice today—everywhere; no nation can avoid socializing a few things—is that George was a free marketeer.

Not that Keith Olbermann mentioned Henry George. Not that I even like Keith Olbermann. But most Americans don’t know what socialism is, and the absurd tangle of definitions on display in Olbermann’s piece — never mind Sarah Palin’s speeches — is normal whenever they get going on the subject.

Thanks to B.

     posted 29 October 2008 by Michael Scott Moore