Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA

I just received the Kindle edition of this book, and I haven't had a chance to read it yet. But I want to quickly respond to the poor ratings targeted at the book for the so-called high price. $10 or $8 is not too much to ask for a book. Sure it would be nice if the book could given away for free, but I think it's more important to discuss the contents of the book than downgrading it because it's not 0.99 cents!I'll start reading the book this week, and will come back and write a review. I'm familiar with many of the writers in the book, and I think it's important that we take every opportunity we can to discuss and even debate how socialism could indeed be a better economic model for improving the living conditions of all people._______Okay, here's my review of the book after reading it.As a result of decades of anti-Communist propaganda and education, you can't even mention the word "socialism" unless it's used as a label to criticize Obama, who ironically is about as socialist as Adam Smith was a Marxist. So thankfully the editors of this book courageously use the word "socialist" in their title. There is no better time than now for us to resurrect a national debate about capitalism and socialism and what these economic systems can mean for the future of this country, as well as the rest of the world.Now unlike the reviewers who have given this book one star, I actually read it from beginning to end. Not one of the on-star reviewers seems to have read even the first page of the book. Most of their reviews are based on non sequitur or straw man fallacies that try to argue that socialism doesn't work because it didn't work in the Soviet Union, and that the price of the book means that the authors are not true socialists, which is just silly. Even if the book were given away for free, I doubt any of those reviewers would actually read it. So let's move on.Secondly, this book is not about Soviet style socialism or communism. The chapter (28) titled, "Third American Revolution "How Socialism Can To the United States" provides the best definition of what the authors mean by socialism:"Socialism could be defined as economic democracy. It means rule by the people over the economic structures and resources that we need to keep ourselves alive and healthy, to engage in creative activity, to maintain good relationships with one another, and to have good and meaningful lives. This is a revolutionary goal. It means a fundamental change from an economic dictatorship-- an economy owned and controlled by a small capitalist minority for the purpose of maximizing its profits-- to an economy owned by all, democratically controlled by all, and planned of freedom, democracy, and innumerable religious creeds.)"The writers in this book, however, don't view socialism as some grand utopia that solves all the world's problems. Their visions of socialism are nuanced, and they are well aware of the challenges and the slim possibilities of a socialist economic model arising out of a deeply rooted, capitalist- driven economic and political system. Though the economic and technological advancements in this country, as well as other countries throughout the world, are ripe for a socialist transformation, writer Paul Le Blanc is most correct when he says, "there is no pathway to socialism [i.e. real socialism] if a majority of the people don't want it." Exactly. We don't need a so-called socialist dictatorship. We need a real democratically- led socialist system.This book starts off with a chapter on what is wrong with capitalism, and why it doesn't work for the majority of the people in this society, and indeed the entire planet. A recent Oxfam study reveals that 85 of the wealthiest individuals in the world own as much wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion. No one questions why it is acceptable for individuals and families to acquire millions or billions of dollars of personal wealth, while most people on the planet live off of $2.50 per day, and half of the workers in the US earned less than $25,000 in 2011. No one, absolutely no one, deserves and needs millions of dollars of personal wealth in order to survive. This level of wealth accumulation is utterly obscene and depraved. (Here's another tiny example for you: "$57,031. That's about what the average US archaeologist made last year. It's also what Jamie Dimon made every day of last year--$20.8 million total, according to the firm's proxy filing this week." Again I ask, why does Jamie Dimon need and deserve that amount of money? It's only because the laws of capitalism allow it. And even another question to ponder, why is the income of the archaeologist not enough for him or her to reasonably live off of in this country? The economics of this country requires that a family of four would need to be making at least$150,000 to $200,000 to live comfortably and retire.)The nature of capitalism is about the privatization and commodification of all goods and services that people need to live. Because the main goal of capitalism is to increase profits, it exploits and misuses natural and human resources, and is largely driven by greed and vast material accumulation, with little or no regard to the negative effects on the environment, animals and people that populate the planet.Each of 31 chapters in this book speaks to the ills of capitalism, but more importantly they explore what a socialist transformation could mean in the United States. Of course it is ironic to ponder such visions in a so-called developed country that doesn't even have universal healthcare. It is hard to imagine a socialist transformation in a country where there are enough people who think that a for-profit, insurance-based, healthcare system is better and more affordable than a publicly-backed (no insurance) healthcare system. "America is the only modern industrial nation in the world that does this to its people. Everywhere else-- Japan, Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, Canada, Taiwan-- there is some kind of system to which every single person has easy access to not only emergency care but to doctors and hospitals as well."But as the saying goes, where there is no vision, the people perish. The importance of this book, and a few others like it, is a call for us to imagine that a better world is indeed possible. It's a call for us to not to not write off socialism because it "didn't work in the Soviet Union," but instead to study the history of socialism and figure out what worked and what didn't, and how it can be done differently.The essays in this book explore how socialism would make a difference in terms of how we work and make use of natural resources. The book explores also what difference socialism would make in the areas of art, healthcare, housing, food, emotional life, sexuality, racism, criminal justice, poverty, immigration, religion, drugs, education, science and technology, women, ecology, racial minorities, and the role of democracy in a publicly owned economy.For example, in the area of science, "a socialist transformation of America would redirect an immense amount of scientific talent and resources toward conquering hunger, poverty, and disease throughout the world."Media institutions would be free of corporate and commercial influence so that journalists could work full-time reporting on and investigating all spears of politics, the economy and culture. Fred Jerome in his essay envisions the cost of media coverage coming from add-ons to union dues of the workers. "In a socialist society," he says, "a portion of the media will be reserved for news disseminated by the democratically elected government bodies, that is, working people elected by and for working people." I would argue though that media would be independent of any economic or political influence, and that journalists would be charged with the responsibility of reporting the news and conducting investigations independent of political influence as much as possible. Online media, as Jerome says, would also continue to play a vital role as being an active and participatory voice of people throughout the world.In the area of housing, Tom Angotti envisions and calls for banks, insurance companies, and landlords to be taken out of the picture. He writes that, "there could be individual private owners, cooperatives, condominiums, government housing, accurate on housing, community land trusts, and other forms of ownership. But land itself will always remain in the public domain and couldn't be bought and sold on the market."The socialist transformation would involve decriminalizing all drugs, and instead helping people to use drugs and alcohol responsibly.In sum, a post-capitalist economy would mean de-privatizing property and natural resources, housing and medical care for everyone, and free universal education that doesn't end with a bachelor or doctorate degree. There is absolutely no way that we can improve the living conditions of everyone on the planet unless we move toward a society that guarantees full employment and complete access to the basic necessities of life. Economic inequalities and poor access to food, housing, education, and medical care means that poverty and deprivation will always undermine our collective human potential.It is difficult to tell how many people will actually read this book or other books like it, but our failure to do so means that we will continue to imprison ourselves in an economic system that has created vast wealth disparities, and disables us from living out our greatest potential. If the best we can do is sell our labor and compete with one another for meager incomes while 1 to 5% of the population continues to grow immensely wealthy, then I cannot foresee a better future for our children. We are not headed for utopia, where on the road to dystopia.

It is progress that a book entitled Imagine Living In a Socialist USA has been published by Harper, a major mainstream publisher.The brief first section, “What’s Wrong With Capitalism?” by Paul Street outlines the ruthlessness of the capitalist system, its incompatibility with democracy, and why our survival depends on pushing it off the stage of history.What could be. Section 2, “Imagining Socialism” follows with 20 brief essays, mostly by veteran activists of the broad left: authors, journalists, professors, lawyers, a poet and a musician. Included are Frances Fox Piven, Michael Steven Smith, Joel Kovel, Rick Wolff, Arun Gupta, Mumia, and Angela Davis, to mention a few.All agree that a post-capitalist society is possible, and would be one of cooperation where the environment would be nourished, where bigotry and inequality would cease to be the norm, where everyone’s needs would be society’s priority. Some call it socialism, others democratic socialism or revolutionary socialism, and another eco-socialism.Curiously, Section 2 recounts almost nothing of the rich socialist tradition in the U.S. Except for Blanche Wiesen Cook’s chapter on three early socialist feminists, one is left with the impression that all of this visualizing can and should be done without mentioning socialist forerunners. Eugene Debs is nowhere to be found!The best chapter is by Juan Gonzalez, who takes on the myth of the “post-racial” era, tells leftists to “stop propping up the bankrupt electoral system,” urges the most oppressed unionists to take over and revive their unions, and sums up recent immigrant organizing and fightback: “... any hope for fundamental change in U.S. society rests largely on the shoulders of new immigrant labor.”Truthfully, much of this has been imagined before. One of the best works is James Cannon’s What Socialist America Will Look Like.How to get there. About half the space is allotted to “Getting There: How to make a Socialist America” — the last section of the book. Frankly, although the title of the book is Imagine Living …, I wish that more ink was spent on the getting there.In 1999, an anti-World Trade Organization eruption resulted in mass street battles with police worldwide. In 2006 tens of thousands of immigrants walked off their jobs to rally in cities across this country, a vitally important upsurge. In 2011 millions of mostly young people occupied city squares, embracing class consciousness as never before.The key question is how to sustain such surges. In my view, they will dissipate again and again without the leadership of a revolutionary party. This is an idea that socialists should be debating and hopefully coming to some agreement on. Yet the topic is conspicuously absent in Imagine. I would say avoided.As a repository for the lessons of history on political and social rebellion, a party provides theoretically educated and politically trained professional revolutionaries capable of focusing the energy of the vast majority of the populace toward the final goal. And that goal is the taking of power, by the many from the few. It will require sustained, dedicated leadership organizing. On the party question, I highly recommend Socialist Feminism and the Revolutionary Party, by Andrea Bauer.In the “Getting There” section there are some calls to break with the Democratic Party, and a mention somewhere that a labor party would be a good idea. But largely it advocates more of what has gone before: organize with like-minded people, form and join unions and coalitions, aim for a general strike. All good ideas, but simply not enough.Next to nothing is said about if or how socialists should participate in the electoral arena. On the issue of pacifism vs. the right of armed self-defense, one author demands an “absolute commitment to non-violence,” another says “the mass movement has to be prepared to defend itself by any means necessary.” Socialists should really be in accord on this topic.Astonishingly, though several of the contributors are affiliated with left and socialist organizations, not one is identified as such in the bio section, and not one advocates that the reader join a specific, or any socialist organization or party. If the point of the book is to help the “S” word shed its dirty-word status, then socialists should claim and promote their own programs.There are wonderful glimmers of wisdom in these pages, as when Kazembe Balagun states that, “Socialism is the unfinished chapter of the Black freedom struggle.” There are reiterations of classic axioms such as Clifford Connor’s “There can be no organization without leadership.” But on the whole I was left with the impression that the militant urgency and organization needed to get to a socialist USA was largely missing.from the freedom socialist website http://www.socialism.com/drupal-6.8/?q=node/3214

Provides a lot of insights and possiblities for enlightened governance. As much as this book proposes socialistic solutions, I still believe capitalism will work with strict rules enforced by the commons....the people. The main one being that all management salaries plus incomes cannot be more that fifty times that of the of the lowest paid worker in the company. And this be part of the federal constitution.

makes sure that capitalism can offer no solution to the present issues

An interesting exploration and timely read given the waves that Bernie Sanders is making

Dear AmazonI ordered Imagine living in Socialist USA on 21/08/2011, and have not yet received it. I am unhappy. I do not know how to contact with you. I am unhappy with the level of your service. This is the second time I am using such available source to register my complaint to you.Allen Rasek