Health Care bill passed

[Tiberius]

Where is the direct line from.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism

to oppression and death?

Nowhere thats where.

I beg to differ. Socialism involves the dividing of the wealth of the country more or less equally between the people of the country. The idea is that if workers contribute to the success of the company, they should see an equal division of profit to the workers. Socialism aims to lower the boundaries between classes (which I'm skeptical exist anyway but that's another story). The only way of doing this in a world where people do have "greed" as a common human nature is by the government controlling people. Of course, once the government starts controlling people, there will be people in the government who use this to their advantage, as we've seen with all socialist countries to date.

You may claim it has been "misappropriated" in the past, but it says a lot about an ideology if:
(a) all instances of it in the past have led to death and oppression.
(b) it seemingly cannot be "appropriated" properly at all.

Socialism is about society taking responsibilty for others within the society.

No, that's what happens naturally. Socialism is born out of desire for the poor not to be poor, yet not wanting to actually do any work. Capitalism lets the poor become rich, if they work hard, have ideas, etc, etc. Socialism is the ideal way for slackers to live in a society whilst not contributing anything to society.

It has been missappropraited in the past thats true, but the concept itself is the anti thesis of repression.

Russia replaced one tzar one by another name, they chose the idea of socialism to gain power but didnt actualy install a properly socialist system, ditto in china and the khymer rouge were about as socialist as the scientologists are christian.

As with the above; it says a great deal about socialism when it cannot be implemented properly at all, and when it is attempted, it leads to death and oppression. Socialism is too idealistic to work; it depends on humans having traits that simply don't exist, and people wanting to work when they do not have to. Capitalism provides the incentive to work, as well as a fair system for distributing the fruits of our labours.

I personnally favour a mix of socialism and capiatlism.

Sounds ghastly.

Socialism for the basics Health, policing,gas, electric, water, sewage, bus and rail services etc and capitalism for less vital stuff.

I'm glad you aren't our chancellor. How exactly do you plan to pay for this massive public service incrementation? Taxes sure would be high in socialism...

Private industry has a history of doing a better job than government programs. The reason is simple; for the government, it is a held "duty" to perform well in the public program. In business, it is a necessity to provide a good service, or lose customers to another. When the government has the monopoly, they have nothing to worry about (since by law it would be illegal for anyone else to create a business like theirs), and so they don't have to provide a good service at all. They get their funds from taxes, which again, are things that are illegal not to pay. A government in socialism has a win-win scenario. They cannot lose, and they will exploit that to their own means.

I know this goes against the Gordeon Gekko 'greed is good' mantra that underpins capitalism, which probably does work in big cities but out here in the sticks it strands old people with bus passes because their bus bus route is 'uneconomic' despite being full of pensioners every day.

Greed isn't good. Greed is a natural part of human life. To that end, a system that most conforms with human nature is one that will work best, since it involves the least amount of changes. We don't like stealing; we have a nasty feeling inside when someone steals from us. We know what we deserve from doing certain work, and this is what capitalism allows for the market to operate. If a worker doesn't get paid well, they leave and find a better job (putting the company at risk if more workers do the same). It is beneficial for the company to look after its workers.

Capitalism is about money socialism is about people.

One entirely misrepresents capitalism is one thinks it is about money. Capitalism has nothing to do with money. Capitalism is a system of favouring the people who contribute to society more than the people who don't, and placing more favour on the people who contribute more (i.e. the people who create jobs). Whether that favour is shown through money or some other societal gain is irrelevant. The system works nonetheless.

Socialism is about people in as much as it seeks to discriminate against the people who do the work, and favour the people who do not. No socialist has ever managed to come up with one reason why I should even bother to work in socialism, and I offer the challenge to them every time I meet them. If you'd like to tell me what incentive I could possibly have for working in a world that favours the people who do not work, please do so.