Dear Editor:

This is in response to the letter from Joe Scorcia (10/28). Mr Scorcia needs a class in economics. Though I didn't like economics in college,  not my favorite thing, I did learn about many forms of economics in political science classes because sometimes they overlap. We are not a socialist country nor a Democratic Socialist country like many in Western Europe.  Not even close. Socialism is an economic system where the government
basically owns factories, farms etc. controlling production. That doesn't happen in America.  No one is proposing socialism in America. And it has never gotten  strong support in this country.  It is a word
bandied about by the right to scare people. 

I wonder if Mr. Scorcia has Medicare or Social Security and if not maybe he shouldn't apply for them because they are a social program to protect and help the people, just like programs proposed in the Build Back Better bill, like paid family leave, free community college, free pre-kindergarten, child care and child tax credits, (remember when college was affordable to the middle class and poor because government supported their state colleges).  We, as a nation, are way behind other nations in doing what government is supposed to do for their people as Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, said the “legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever  they need to have done, but cannot do ... for themselves ... in their separate, and individual capacities.”  That doesn't mean just roads and bridges but social programs such as proposed in legislation in the Biden package. Also to be paid for over 10 years by means other than taxing the middle class.

Re: his comment about Communism. Communism is a “political theory derived from  Karl Marx, advocating class war leading and leading  to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.” (Oxford Languages) If we don't even come close to socialism where does that leave Communism in the political field — nowhere!

Bonnie Ginger

Boothbay