Finger-pointing is a waste of time

Richard Rychtarik, Las Vegas

Thursday, Sept. 8, 2011 | 2:01 a.m.

Republicans, especially Tea Party adherents, never pass up the opportunity to invoke their “Democrats are turning America into a socialist state” mantra. It doesn’t matter if it’s about unemployment checks, food stamps or other federal assistance for the down and out. Just examine the achievements of Canada and Scandinavian countries to find successful “socialist”-like models. It works for them but may not work well for very large, diverse countries such as America.

Today, I see a greater chance of America becoming a feudal lord-and-serf system under a Tea Party-ruling class than I see America becoming a socialist state. Either extreme is not very appealing.

Let’s think about the state of socialism, “where everyone shares everything,” in America today. The vast majority of Americans at some point in their working life will become unemployed for an extended period.

So when your neighbor has no job and is receiving unemployment checks, food stamps or welfare assistance, he or she is participating in socialism. When you are receiving unemployment checks, food stamps or welfare assistance, then it’s your right to a benefit that you contributed toward. Is this socialism, really?

Just about everybody wants big government protection, but they really don’t want to pay for it themselves. Everyone’s time would be better spent working toward long-term solutions such as improving education and immigration standards to ameliorate the erosion of income and jobs, not who currently might be getting something for “free” that they aren’t.

The world is a highly competitive place. Wasting time pointing fingers at each other only helps the competition.