11 Socialist Features American has adopted…that the Founders Never Imagined.
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For many Americans, the traditional idea of the American Dream feels increasingly out of reach. Even steady full-time work—often in decent-paying jobs—is no longer enough to reliably secure housing, savings, or long-term financial stability.
The main pressure point is the rising cost of essentials. Housing, healthcare, education, insurance, transportation, and debt obligations take up a growing share of income. These are not optional luxuries—they are required to function in modern life. When those costs rise faster than wages, even small setbacks like a car repair or medical bill can push people into debt.
A second issue is how unevenly economic gains feel distributed. While some individuals and executives at the top of major organizations see significant compensation growth, many workers feel their pay has not kept pace with the rising cost of living or the value of their work. The result is not just income pressure, but a sense of stalled mobility.
This is where some of the appeal of “socialist” or more expansive government policy ideas comes from. For many people, it is less about ideology and more about affordability—reducing the cost of essentials, limiting debt traps, and making basic stability more achievable through targeted reforms like education support, lower-cost training pathways, or reformed lending systems.
At the same time, it is important not to lose sight of what drives economic growth in the first place: successful companies, investors, and entrepreneurs. Wealth creation at the top of the economic system plays a crucial role in building industries, funding innovation, and creating jobs across every level of the workforce. A strong middle class depends on a strong base of thriving businesses and job creators. The goal should not be fewer wealthy individuals or fewer successful companies, but more of them—competing, expanding, and generating opportunity.
The challenge is ensuring that essential markets like healthcare, housing, education, and insurance remain functional and fair, so that costs do not rise faster than incomes and lock people out of stability. When these systems become too strained, even a productive economy can feel inaccessible to the people working inside it.
Ultimately, the rise in support for “socialist” ideas reflects frustration with affordability and opportunity, not necessarily a rejection of markets. Most people are reacting to the gap between hard work and financial security. The question is how to preserve a strong, job-creating economy while making sure the basics of life remain within reach for the people who keep it running.
Lisa,
Sharyl
—and Full Measure Team :
Professor . . . Putnam . . . Explains . . . t-h-e . . . Actual
Reason/Cause for Growing Loneliness among
Americans :
https://sharylattkisson.com/2023/06/watch-measuring-happiness/#comment-170848
-Rick
P.S.
My gleaning these quotes from Aristotle’s “Politics”—was very, very hard, as he liked to write lengthly RUN-ON paragraphs :
Forwarded Message
Helena,
Re : Crux of the matter of growing
inter-racial conflicts in this once-mostly-
White West ( pre-Sixties America : 90%
White-European and British at that time )
Aristotle warned us :
—“Masculine republics give way to feminine democracies, and feminine democracies give way to tyranny.”
—On race-mixing :
[ He explains growing loneliness, as non-WHITE foreigners grow in U.S. ]], :
“Another cause of revolution is difference of races which do not at once acquire a common spirit; for a state is not the growth of a day, any more than it grows out of a multitude brought together by accident. Hence the reception of strangers in colonies, either at the time of their foundation or afterwards, has generally produced revolution.”
—On bad democracy :
“[T]he last form of democracy . . . [in which] all share alike . . . [and] the leaders have been in the habit of including as many as they can, and making citizens not only of those who are legitimate, but even of the illegitimate . . . This is the way in which demagogues proceed. Whereas the right thing would be to make no more additions when the numbers of the commonality exceeds that of the notables and of the middle class,—beyond this not to go . . . [these] measures taken by tyrants appear all of them to be democratic. Such a government will have many supporters, for most persons would rather live in a disorderly than in a sober manner.”
—On how to install bad democracy :
”Fresh tribes and brotherhoods should be established; the private rites of families should be restricted and converted into public ones; in short, every contrivance should be adopted which will mingle the citizens with one another and get rid of old connections.”
-Rick