Who said anything about hating government. That is the problem with so many socialists and Europeans.
They have no sense of self, of individuality.
They only thing identity they have is in relation to their government.

Who said anything about regulation being socialist, or mail delivery, or highway construction.
When the government forces you to give it money (for Medicare) and then tells you the only way you can receive benefits for that money (staying inside the Medicare system) that is socialism.

It isn't difficult to understand, but of course you can't have a sheep's mentality to do so.

By the way, just because government regulation isn't socialism it doesn't me it is beneficial.

When will the sheep learn that no one can take better care of your needs than you, and when will the sheep learn that people in government are their because they couldn't make it in the private sector.

Ovejita:

When the government forces you to give it money (for mail delivery) and then tells you the only way you can receive benefits for that money (sending mail via USPS) that is socialism.

When the government forces you to give it money (for highway construction) and then tells you the only way you can receive benefits for that money (driving on that highway with your car) that is socialism.

JECE, Thank you for making a fool out of yourself.
I could never have done it so effectively.

It is revealing when socialists can't defend policies like social security that use the power of the state to mandate contributions from individuals against their will in order to fund a ponzi scheme that does more to empower and enrich the bureaucracy that administers it than provide fruitful returns on investment to the individual mandated to participate in the system.

Of course socialism can't allow individuals to voluntarily opt out because if any individual provided a better retirement for themselves than the government mandated program then enrollment would disappear, and so of course would the massive government bureaucracy associated with it.

So when brain dead socialists can't find any logical argument to defend social security they resort to the infantile statement that delivering mail is the same as social security.

You must pity someone with no more intellect than that.

*Sigh* I un-mute Tettleton only to find out all his comments are as asinine as ever. You are such imbecile.

The Socialist logic in absolutely predicable and totally fallible.

In the socialist mindset any government equals unlimited government.
Any government power means government power without limits.
If the government has power to tax then it has the unlimited power to redistribute wealth according to the socialists.

There are no limits on government authority for socialists and no end of generalizations of isolated and one of a kind victims either.

So you end up with two choices from the mindless socialist, total anarchy or total socialist control.

Can you picture how maddening an experience the Constitution Convention would have been for a socialist.

All the foreign terms and concepts- separation of powers, checks and balances, limited government, and on and on with enlightenment ideas that drive socialists to frothing at the mouth to this day.

Cheers to the founders!

The Spanish are simply doing what most democratic nations do when they find their country in hot water: Vote for the other guy. If the centre right party had happened to have been in charge for the past few years we would have almost certainly been about to witness the Socialist's biggest victory for many years. Truth is that virtually all mainstream European parties of any colour that are in power are singing from the same hymn sheet, and elections (or lack of them in Greece and Italy) are taking on a farcical nature.

The danger will come if the people get overly angered by this and start looking for fringe parties that offer genuine differences.

Opens thread > Reads some good points by Tettleton > Reads some good reactions by JECE > Reads nonsense ad hominem comments by Tettleton that defeat the attempt Tettleton does to convince the world he's right > Is disgusted by Tettleton > Closes thread.

Anyone finds any irony in the fact that the elections won by conservatives took place exactly 36 years after Franco's death?

@ ulytau

No.

Wait a sec, does anyone, following TC's definition, know a non-socialist state?
Maybe Zimbabwe, but maybe I'm just saying that because there's little information about that country.

Yeah. The state of self-absorbedness that Tettleton finds himself in is non-socialist.

red, blue, black or yellow parties come and go, but common small people live harder and harder as time goes by.

Totally false statement Dejan.

"Common small people" actually live better and better all the time.
All the economic and historical evidence points out that the common man has never lived better in the entire history of humanity.

Now if you are a vain, self-centered individual who constantly envies what someone else has or is jealous of other people's success you could post that commom small people live harder and harder, but it is a total fantasy indefensible in the face of facts and reality.

Tettleton's Chew: To be honest, I wasn't taking you seriously because you sound like a troll.

i. e., you sound something like Stephen Colbert or Ann Coulter, except not at all amusing.

Octavious: Danger? I wouldn't call Izquierda Unida a danger.

ulytau: Yeah, that was sort of planned.

Tettleton's Chew: And do you even know what social security in Spain is? It's not a retirement fund; I'll tell you that much.

Je, It's painfully obvious you don't understand finance, debt, or a balance sheet.

Pray tell define some of the categories you post a nonsensical sentence about, like "social security in Spain."

I hope you can give a definition that demonstrates it isn't the classic ponzi scheme it is in the United States.

BTW Ponzi scheme=new investors paying off old investors with not individual accounts existing for any investors.

This is exactly what American social security is.
If a Wall Street firm handled the money of investors the same way the social security administration pools and mingles the money of payees then we would need a lot more American prisons to incarcerate the guilty.

Tettleton's Chew: Since it's not going to be worth anything, I'm just going to paste a Wikipedia article which I haven't read and part of a conversation I had with somebody who was going to visit Spain this past August which doesn't directly answer your question:
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_in_Spain
* "Yeah, I was talking with my grandfather about health insurance in Spain an it's pretty interesting. He has private health insurance and pays 100€ per month for it (until recently, he paid 55€ per month), plus 8€ every three months to see a specialist. He has had his private health insurance for decades, so he didn't get it because of the country's current healthcare system. In fact, the only advantage it really has over the public health plan, which he says is very good, is that he doesn't have to wait for stuff. The maximum he might have to wait for a visit under the private plan is 3 or 4 days. The public plan can have you waiting much longer for issues that don't need immediate attention, and also don't gave appointments so regularly. My grandfather, for instance, is told by his specialized doctor to come back in three months after a visit. The public specialist could tell you to come back in 15 days or in 1 year. Of course, these are for regular check-ups: both systems would treat you immediately if you had an emergency. Until a year ago, you couldn't choose your own doctor or hospital in the public system, but since that's now changed, being able to do so is no longer an advantage of the private system. The private plans until not long ago also gave all sorts of luxuries and conveniences, but these aren't as big a deal as they used to be. After my grandfather fell down the stairs and broke his arm in Brussels while visiting us a decade ago, the private insurance paid for my uncle's flight from Spain to visit him! It's interesting to note that Spain has agreements with many countries so that citizens can get care free in each others countries. This is not the case with the United States (so any treatment you might need won't be free), for obvious reasons. But the private plan isn't much better in that regard: my grandparents are covered for up to half a million Euros in Brazil, while in the U. S. the private insurance won't pay a dime. And although my grandparents have private insurance, they are still covered by the public system, like all residents of Spain are (I am not a resident.), and use it to get their prescribed medicines very cheap."

But, ha ha, your knowledge of social security in the U. S. doesn't sound to good either. I'm not going to argue with you about that, though, because you're not going to listen to a word I say.

Wikipedia?

JECE, if you said something intelligent I would listen.

Ditto.