Communism: The Reform Killing Skeleton

During the health care debates of 2010, opponents of the bill accused the bill as being Communistic and attacking the American way of life.  But what does it mean for an idea or bill to be communist?  While communism has been attacked as a failed economic system and a system which has been seen to hinder freedom in Europe and around the world, communism has accomplished various accomplishments in its own right, namely, providing education, health care and providing wealth distribution for many poorer nations.  Yet, in America, no matter how communism has been defined or criticized, America uses a broad stereotype of communism as a means to prevent reform in the nation with the use of fear. 

            One of the greatest fears of Americans toward communism is that communism distributes wealth from the privileged classes to the lower classes.  Americans have called out many reformers who wish to reduce the gap between the super rich and the poor as communists who wish to pay everyone the same amount.  In stereotyping the reformer as a Communist, they also imply that communists are lazy and so by giving money to the poor, there will be no change because then the poor will strive only to get “hand outs” rather than to do honest work and to move forward in society (Maccionis, 11).  This is an idea associated with communism that has existed from the 1880’s, the height of American industrialism.  The negative stereotype of the problem of communism easily appeals to the rich and upper middle-class who can view their own luxurious living as a result of their own hard work and that hard work will ultimately bring wealth.  However, while some poor people may look for hand-outs, most are extremely hard working, but the conditions that they work under prevent any chance of advancement.  If that is the case, then to improve the opportunity blue collar workers is closer to the aspiration of the American dream than it is to communism.

Capitalists accuse communism of not being a fair system, but on the same hand, capitalism has its flaws as well which should be acknowledged.  In the current American economy, 42.7% of America’s financial wealth is held by the top 1% of the population.  In comparison, only 7% of the total financial wealth is held by the bottom 8% of the workers (Domhoff).  Further, the amount of money held by America’s elites is greater than almost every country in Europe, save for Switzerland.  Now, if it were solely the case that America had a higher gap between rich and poor, this might be excused for various reasons, however, between 1983 and 2007, wealth in America has been slowly accumulating in the upper percentiles of society.  Along with this, the salaries of CEO’s have increased drastically since 1995 while minimum wage and paying wage have scarcely improved.  Reform is used to improve society and to make it fairer for the average person.  Glen Beck in his book, Arguing with Idiots, marks his belief that the Progressivism begun by Teddy Roosevelt was an initial start toward America’s communistic slide.  According to Beck, Roosevelt “didn’t believe that any of them [the super wealthy] were ultimately capable of doing what was best for the collective,” yet at the time that Roosevelt took office, most of the working class working for the rich were living in slums with no protection of unions to fight for better conditions (Beck, 214).  However, even in his time, Roosevelt was accused of being a Socialist, but he responded that he disagreed strongly with communism, but his changes were to “create an equal opportunity for every man” ( ap u.s. book?).  Roosevelt stated the true meaning to his reforms; not to change the entire system, but rather to improve the system so that each man may have the same opportunity to succeed as the next.  This is the mentality of almost every reformer, but they are continued to be bombarded as proponents of communism.