NPR: Socialism growing in popularity

[Brandon]

I think this episode of The 1A was done in collaboration with Intelligence Squared:

https://the1a.org/shows/2018-01-04/so-about-socialism 

 

I'm listening on the treadmill so I may have missed some parts but I think they said right after the US pres inauguration it was around 35% popularity and now twelve months later it's risen to 55% ! 

(I can't remember if this number was of the US population overall or just one age group;  I think if it was the latter it was age under 35)

[carlos]

I guess Socialism is only popular in countries that have never been under a Socialist regime. In Eastern Europe don't tell people about Socialism or Communism.

[Brandon]

6 hours ago, carlos said:

but in Eastern Europe don't tell people about Socialism or Communism

Haha ya, political terms are funny like that; meaning almost nothing, and yet simultaneously, multiple unrelated ideas.

 

I think the podcast is referring specifically to Democratic socialism. This idea seems to be more closely aligned with Denmark's "welfare state" (rated to be the happiest place on earth by sociologists), as well as the Nordic model of economics in general.

 

Proponents (especially American proponents) of social-democracy socialism often align themselves with such historical figures as as Martin Luther King Jr. and current US senator Bernie Sanders, who left the democratic party after it nominated Hillary Clinton over him.

  (I could be wrong about some of these details but I think that's the gist of it.)

Edited January 9, 2018 by Brandon