Socialism Fear-mongering is Bananas | Robert Reich

Why tax for the benefit of all when you can tax to add additional billions to the oligarch bank accounts. People with sufficient means to survive might have time to protest the policies of the corporate masters which could cut into their profits. Nope. Can’t have that

THE PUBLIC SECTOR ALSO ROBS THE TAXPAYERS. LOOK UP THE OREGON NEWSPAPER, CALLED THE OREGONIAN. SOME OF THE STATE OF OREGON RETIREES ARE GETTING $40,000 A MONTH IN THEIR PENSION BENEFITS. THESE WERE SOMETIMES TEACHING DOCTORS WORKING AT OREGON HEALTH SCIENCES UNIVERSITY.
OTHERS WERE JUST PROFESSORS.
MY GOD. BLAME THE PRIVATE SECTOR BUT IGNORE THE FLEECING OF TAXPAYERS BY GOVERNMENT WORKERS?

I don't think people complain so much about spending for the common good as they do about spending that they perceive benefits only one segment of society. Even then, if the benefit is perceived as earned, such as Social Security, few people object. But the more the spending is perceived as benefitting people who haven't earned it the louder the objections. Note that I'm not saying this is right but just that things are more complicated than this video is making it sound.

😐 why did uncle bob open the banana like that at the end. That ain’t right 😐

Bananas are literally radioactive though.

WRITTEN FOR AMOS:
The poor start learning how to get on welfare very young. While working with teens, I witnessed they were already trying to learn all the rules at age 16.
Have a baby. That's a big one. And one woman the STATE OF OREGON forced to work was on her 8th baby - no marriages. Oregon had already been ruled by Democrats for years. But even they got sick of all the fraud.
So, her housing - well, you tell me what it was. Since you pretend to know everything. But, I do know at that time a different young woman was getting over $1,200 a month because she told me she could rent a brand new beach house with her assistance. $900 for the housing and the other she could make up in cash assistance.
NEED????? You joke and have never worked for welfare. Admit it.
The poor not only DON'T pay their fair share of taxes - they USE much more than their fair share of OTHER PEOPLE'S TAXES.

To All the haters in the comments complaing about "out of control spending"... If the rich would just pay their share for once, this wouldn't be an issue! Elon Musk paid 3% of his income in taxes last year while the average citizens paid nearly 33%! Elon Musk got a 10k$ tax credit for his daughter's college while even the poorest in this country still can't even get a single dolar tax credit for college or even one penny forgiven! The number one problem is the rich not paying their share! 😉

IF YOU ARE ACTUALLY WORKING AND PAYING TAXES YOU ARE PAYING THE SALARIES OF 23 MILLION GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES? I WORKED FOR THE GOVERNMENT AND ABOUT 1/3RD OF OUR EMPLOYEES COULD HAVE BEEN LAID OFF. THE UNIONS AND THE AGENCY HEADS KNEW IT. WE ALL GOT A NUMBER WHICH INDICATED OUR USEFULNESS TO THE AGENCY. 1/3RD JUST SAT IN MEETINGS CHATTING. WHY DO YOU WANT TO SUPPORT USELESS WORK?

bob would never wear suit

If you want to know how good banana-ing your Public Health Care is: As a German, I pay 10 bananas per ambulance ride, 10 per night at a hospital, and 5 per prescription medicin.

Blows my mind how Americans think pooling their money together in the form of taxes for something like health care is "socialism" but will then go out and pool their money together in the form of insurance for something like health care. Do you really not understand how insurance works?
You pay taxes....you should get the services you need with your own money- i.e. your taxes. You will pay taxes but then cry "socialism" when it is used for what taxes are meant to be used for....services for you. It is your money. You should get services for that money.

No, Bobby, “conservatives” DON’T believe that any pooling of resources is socialism. We know that Sweden has a huge program of “pooling resources” through massive taxation. You charlatans promote their economy as a socialist success story despite the fact that they are not socialist. You and your criminal cronies believe that painting a smiley face on the scourge of socialism will fool us all into accepting the slavery you have planned for us.

If only mainstream media daily presented the facts. But our 4th estate is flooded with dark money from billionaires in U.S., from Chinese, Saudi, and Russiam trolls and bot farms,from 1,000s eager to see fragile democracy crumble. ...😢But naive hope prevails.May we not fall like Chile in 1973.

The reasons I and many other are so against socialism is because if you give the government to much power it will become corrupt and tyrannical. Ps in America the top one percent pay ninety percent of the taxes

The US spending system is broken, money is used disproportionaly for Defense and other stuff instead of actually benefiting its people. Government should first PROVE they can recalibrate spending for the common good, then only later with some amount of credit start talking about any sort of tax increase. Spoiler: If the spending quality is actually top notch, there may be no need for an increase.

Let's cut the food stamp budget - and make alL the overweight on Medicaid and Medicare lose weight, Robert.
When I was very thin, I was too busy raising two little kids and working FULL time.
My arms looked like toothpicks.
LET'S SAVE MONEY AND CUT THE FOOD STAMP BUDGET FOR ANYONE OVER A CERTAIN WEIGHT - WHICH IS BETTER FOR THEIR HEALTH.
WE EVEN HAVE GROSSLY OVERWEIGHT PEOPLE COMING IN AS ILLEGALS WHO HAVE BEEN ON TV.

I pay 400 a month for Healthcare. If I paid 400 dollars more a month in taxes and got cheaper Healthcare, I would be better off.

I honestly never got why someone might be against government spending on free healthcare

"I don't want my money going to help some other person's health!"

That is literally how insurance works, except the government is marginally less shity than insurance companies (debatable)

It's bizarre to see the US when you grew up in Europe.

Maybe we should scare conservatives with insurance

Valid argument. Only one problem. We are trillions of dollars in debt because of taxes. It ain't just because of spending on the military, it's because our politicians are wasting money on their own agendas. We can't just point fingers at corporations, we have to point fingers at our overinflated government. I don't want bananas, I want a smaller government, low debt and low rent and affordable housing.

Well, taxes! And they'll take anywhere from 25-50% of your income before you even get it, they'll tax it every time you spend or move your money too! They'll even tax your money when you DIE! What for you say? Well, the vast majority of your taxes goes to corporate welfare, it's kinda like normal welfare execpt instead of giving a couple hundred a month to a single mother, they give billions to Nike and Lockheed Martin! A close number 2 is our defense budget, which is higher than the next 6 countries combined! This of course is strictly for defending our freedom AND not to create an invading force to dismantle smaller countries who refuse to cave to our economic hitmen. So pay your taxes, the government has your best interest, and definitely aren't selling your rights, land, and water to billion dollar conglomerates. Handing over your hard earned money is to help the poor, not feed the bottomless pit of corporate and instrustrial greed that salivates Overtop of our politicians as It buys your rights from them!

There's nothing wrong with socialism as a concept, other than the fact that it fails to account for human greed. The system is built to keep you poor and dependent on the government for help. It is designed to keep the wealthy well, wealthy and powerful. They can keep the money printers going and increase inflation until they have it all, and when youre all poor they'll take what little money you have left in taxes and sell it back to you for a vote. They will sell the land beneath your feet and watch your rent skyrocket until you can't afford it, and then kick you to the curb and build a starbucks where you once called home. We don't criticize socialism because we dont want to help the poor, we criticize it because our government uses the idea of it as a ploy to steal from the common man and feed the wealthy. Debt is the fuel that keeps our economy running, the system was made to burn the poor. Socialism is being used to speed up the process, not stop it. It is idealistic, not realistic. Any sustainable economy must have fail safes to account for human greed, particularly those of the wealthy and those in political office. No such system has ever existed, because very few with power are interested in limiting their own power and wealth.

Military spending has been an integral part of the economy since the end of the Great Depression. Most Americans dance around having to admit this. The question occasionally arises to how to actually deploy those activities. But the question will never arise as to what alternatives there are.

Advanced countries pool resources then politicians allocate those resources in order to garner votes and remain in power, never accountable, never responsible, always seeking credit for their incompetence.

Research, the real cost.

dipsh!t republican'ts, "sToP maKinG muRiCa socIiAlist, CommIeS!!!1!!1!!"

taxes, "bonjour."

public schools, "bonjour"

police, "bonjour"

firefighters, "bonjour"

SNAP, "bonjour"

medicare, "bonjour"

paramedics, "bonjour"

clinics, "bonjour"

emergency rooms, "bonjour"

welfare, "bonjour"

municipal leadership, "bonjour"

public parks, "bonjour"

paved streets, "bonjour"

water utilities, "bonjour"

sewers, "bonjour"

water sanitation, "bonjour"

national parks, "bonjour"

the entire military (which they worship), " bonjour"

nuclear power plants, "bonjour"

power utilities, "bonjour"

hydroelectric dams, "bonjour"

wildlife reserves, "bonjour"

corporate regulations, "bonjour"

USDA, "bonjour"

EPA, "bonjour"

OSHA, "bonjour"

labor laws, "bonjour"

wind farms, "bonjour"

solar farms, "bonjour"

hurricane levies, "bonjour"

the interstate system, "bonjour" (nevermind muskrats imaginary hyperloop's got us covered on that one 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄)

literally every single bridge, "bonjour"

literally every single traffic light, "bonjour"

literally every single stop sign, "bonjour"

literally every single guard rail, "bonjour"

automobile safety regulations, "bonjour"

veterans' benefits, "bonjour"

coast guard, "bonjour"

NOAA, "bonjour"

GPS, "bonjour"

the entire internet's infrastructure, "bonjour"

search and rescue, "bonjour"

cyber security, "bonjour"

FBI, "bonjour"

CIA, "bonjour"

flood control, "bonjour"

park rangers, "bonjour"

CDC, "bonjour"

FEMA, "bonjour"

municipal courts, "bonjour"

public defenders, "bonjour"

public prosecutors, "bonjour"

bailiffs, "bonjour"

sternographers, "bonjour"

juries, "bonjour"

animal control, "bonjour"

animal shelters, "bonjour"

ect., ect., ect., ect., ect.

republican'ts are far far far FAAAAAR too stup!d and corrupt to ever be allowed ANY power ever again.

They say socialism like it's a bad thing...

Why does the left always wait for legislation to force by gunpoint the theft of their money before they give it away?

republican'ts are AMAZING at propaganda

dogsh!t at literally everything else but AMAZING at lies and deception

its almost like theyre evil or something... 🤔🤔🤔

I live in the "socialist" (compared to the U.S.) country of Australia. It's just awful having unemployment benefits, free healthcare, etc. :P

Coming off recently from maternity leave... I'm grateful for the bananas I was able to receive... but I sure wish we had a bit more banana support. Maybe we wouldn't have needed to dip into lines of credit to fill in gaps. Thank you for the breakdown in this video. ❤

Tax cuts, incentives and bailouts for corporations (socialism-) rationalized to be good when often it’s used as bonuses to a few.
But anything that demonstrates conscience caring is socialism.
Closed minded biased illiterate far right.

banana the rich

Sad part is, I once pointed this out to someone I knew and their response was "Well fuck all those things! I didn't ask for these roads or police!"

Thing is, actual Socialism would be more akin to just allowing employee-owned companies. However, that will never happen because the oligarchs/neo-aristocacy/capitalist class will never let that happen.

The Red Scare has been with us for around a hundred years effective tool for those who don't think and for those who want to manipulate them

It's too bad this wonderfully produced video will be unlikely to change minds. Just the mention of 'Pandemic' and 'Climate change' will send its intended audience running. I'm just a cynical Canadian, watching your country turn into Gilead.

People tell me that my political beliefs make me sound like a socialist, to which I always reply “I’m not LIKE a socialist, I AM a socialist” I’m a socialist, and I’m proud of that fact

Socialism is when the workers own the means of production. The only people who should be scared of this word is the owner class.

This scare game sort of prospered in the US - elsewhere we know socialism is the public library, free healthcare, and a limit to the incontinent avarice of big businesses.

Thank you Mr. Reich. You present it just like a professor. ;)

When you stop to understand that we are living in a bubble and the USA really is the statistical outlier here it becomes a lot more clear that such fear of 🍌 is isolated to us, and that makes you ask "why".

The only part I take issue with is that but at the end where you take the peel all the way off the banana before you take a bite. Might have to rethink subscribing to this channel now lol

I think Robert misrepresents the argument a little bit by presenting taxes as “socialism.” Taxes, for whatever good they do (which is inarguably a checkerboard), are a conservatizing force by which the wealthy prevent overthrow of their bourgeois government.
Wealthy person: “I pay my taxes; I contribute to the common good! (Never mind that I’m able to buy a second vacation home and own three six-figure cars while the workers who make me the money to be able to live like this, themselves have to live live paycheck to paycheck.)”
It’s because of the acceptance of this rhetoric that the wealthy can then claim they’re taxed too heavily, even though no amount of taxation would lower their comfort or their quality of life one iota.
I’m not advocating for tax abolition; that’s conservative propaganda. I’m advocating for abolition of the very existence of millionaire- and billionaireism.
Also, the people don’t benefit from defense spending or highways. Only the bourgeoisie who profit from the military-industrial complex and the car companies (respectively) do.

You are a genius and a national treasure Mr. Reich.❤

"The military" is pure socialism. I'm surprised that the right are so supportive and fond of it.

REICH 4 PREZ 2024
(only common sense
that makes, SENSE!)