With the rise of communist socialist extremists like bernie sanders and alexandria cortrez, why are people being told that socialism is a good thing. Have these people ever seen venezuala or cuba? Nothing can be free, or else it will be another one of those. So lets take all of these new communists brainwashed by the people mentioned above to those countries and see how much they enjoy socialism.
I see the claim of people "being taught" to love socialism and communism a lot. Can you clarify where and how people are being "taught" to love these ideologies on a wide scale?
I have been through the American school system. 1 elementary school, 1 middle school, 2 high schools, community college, and university. Not once have I ever been taught anything remotely similar to "socialism and communism are good." After schooling, I also went on to work as a teacher in two separate schools and as a private tutor. Again, when reviewing history material for students in several different schools I didn't see one instance of "socialism and communism are good." In fact, I never even saw an instance of socialism and communism even being explained correctly, which is probably why the general public seems to be foggy on what these ideologies actually are.
Now, what I stated above is of course from my personal experience and in speaking with others who have been through the school system in some way. It's definitely not all-inclusive. If you could provide some examples of people actually being taught that socialism and communism are good, I'd love to see them. Otherwise, from what you posted it seems like your question is more along the lines of "Why are left leaning political figures rising in prominence and why is general sentiment favoring communism/socialism on the rise?"
And well, you'd be correct in observing that general sentiment toward socialism is in fact on the rise. Without much digging I found a
gallup poll that shows that younger Americans especially are viewing socialism more favorably and capitalism less favorably than they did 9 years ago. This is most likely a factor in why figures like Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders have good support.
So to go back to "why is sentiment favoring socialism/communism on the rise?" Well, I believe this could be indicative of a problem in the current state of things here in the US. Here are just a few examples:
- Privatization and rising costs of universities has resulted in a
1.56 TRILLION total of student loan debt in the US (as of September 2018), a rise of over 400 billion in just 5 years!
- Federal minimum wage is 7.25$. Yet, the cost of living is rising at a faster pace than minimum wage can keep up. I will cite an example for Miami (8.46$ minimum wage) because that is where I've lived most of my life. The average cost for a cheap studio apartment is about
1,125 a month. With a full time job at minimum wage, a worker in Miami will receive 1,353 a month. This is not including taxes. With that compensation, there is simply not enough money to spend on food, utilities, transportation, and other expenses after rent.
- Healthcare costs are causing families to
live without healthcare because they simply cannot afford it.
A shift from a capitalist model to a socialist model or communist model, in its simplest form, involves changing private ownerships to public/collective ownerships. I believe more people are starting to favor this because privately owned institutions are often charging more than what people can afford. This is especially true for institutions such as healthcare, which is believed by many people and several organizations (WHO, UN, etc) to be a natural human right.
Now, to address where you say "have these people ever seen Venezuela or Cuba?"
I would like to ask... Have YOU ever seen Venezuela or Cuba? These countries do not simply exist to be pointed at and branded as verifiable proof that communism and socialism are unsuccessful by people who haven't experienced or studied them extensively. There are MANY factors that go into the problems that these countries have faced. I am speaking as a Cuban-American with a family who has lived through the Castro regime and as someone with a knowledge of Cuba and US relations and history. At the end of the day, systems will always sound one way on paper but differ in practice. The execution of these systems will always be subject to different variables.
Regardless, I think it is good to ask the question "why?" to the rise of socialist and communist sentiment gaining traction in the US. If we could analyze what is causing people frustration with the current system, we could work towards a solution, regardless of what political ideology that solution fits under. You don't have to be a communist to want to make healthcare more accessible to people, for example.