Quick! Need a link or explanation about Socialism - thank you

Thanks to all you helpful people! I was tongue-tied and clueless there for awhile...
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Re: your comment "Socialism my ass, so every other industrialized democratic western country is socialist? Why has this become a scare label? Why is taking care of each other evil?"

Dear ,
Of course "taking care of each other" isn't evil. It is only when government intervenes and takes away the choice of how, when and whom to take care of that turns it into a mess. And when done under the guise of "helping the poor" while enriching the pharmaceutical companies, the elite and private bankers, yes, it is very evil.

Whatever happened to private, voluntary charity and hospitals run by non-profit churches? That is being nearly wiped out by government intervention.

One of the tenets of socialism is redistributing the wealth. But how well has the government redistributed the wealth so far? Taken care of the poor so far? How many new projects and homeless camps have sprung up in the past few years? And you would like the government to control people's health care also? That would be disastrous, judging by all their recent failures.

When people become totally dependent upon the government and upon a welfare state of life, it is a sad thing. But that is what has happened to Native Americans on reservations and the poor in the ghetto, where they can only get ahead by selling drugs on the street corners. They've lost their sense of self and pride.

You might ask the victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans how much they were helped by the government. When everything is owned and run by the government, the endless red tape and incompetency turns everything into a nightmare.

Here are the 10 measures of Communism, which is only a hop, skip and a jump away from failed government socialism. You will see most of these are already happening under the guise of "Helping the Poor" or what some think of as innocent socialism. But it is a steady progression:

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.

2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.

4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.

5. Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.

6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state.

7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.

8. Equal obligation of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.

9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country.

10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc.

Here is also an article the explores the question: "Is Obama a Socialist?"
http://www.lewrockwell.com/gregory/gregory169.html

Best regards,

tell him to read Animal Farm by George Orwell...and after that Obama Deception movie(free on google videos and youtube).

"Our planet is the mental institution for the universe."
-- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
"Maybe this world is another planet's hell."
-- Aldous Huxley

We already HAVE communism... Or better described fascism/corporatism which is basically communism with corporate control.

http://www.criminalgovernment.com/docs/planks.html

http://ladalang.blogspot.com/2009/08/name-calling-in-america...

of socialism is "to take something of value from one man, by force or threat of violence, and give it to another man"
our system is based upon the natural rights of the individual. not upon the good of the collective whole.
this is why healthcare cannot be considered a natural right, it involves the fruit of another persons labor.
or at least that is my understanding and best way to explain it.

" the important thing is to never stop questioning, curiousity, has it's own reason for existing..
Albert Einstien