Unfortunately, Americans equate

socialism with communism. This

misunderstanding could be the biggest

problem we have when it comes to

changing the way our inefficient federal

governmental bureaucracy is ruining our

republic.

One only needs to look at European countries --

like Germany or Belgium or Asian countries like Japan

or Taiwan -- to see how socialism and democracy

works very well together. What most Americans do

not realize is that socialism, by itself, does not run your

life or take away your freedoms. It is communism or

tyranny that does that. The people in the countries

mentioned, along with the other European and Asian

democracies, have their basic freedoms. It is not like

they have to give up their basic rights to freedom of

speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly,

freedom of religion or the rule of law to have what is

called a social democracy.

The biggest objection we have with the socialisttype

programs already in place is a stagnant civil

service that makes it impossible to fi re people who are

not doing their jobs. In a typical year in this country,

only a few hundred people get fi red from their federal

government jobs -- a few hundred out of two million!

My experience working with the federal

government was working with the 2010 Census. I

have never seen so much laziness! Some of the people

only had to turn in a small amount of paperwork

each week to keep their jobs. They did not even have

to do anything, so long as the paperwork made their

supervisor look good. Unfortunately, this kind of

laziness is rampant in our federal government.

If we could institute programs that held our

governmental workers accountable, we would see a

marked difference in the American public's attitude

towards more governmental programs. The way it is

now, you can hardly blame people for not wanting to

see more government spending. Waste in our federal

government is unbridled. But the reality is, there are

things only the federal government can do and we are

not doing them.

Only the federal government can provide the

leadership to fi x our fast-deteriorating Interstate

Highway System and outdated railroad system. Both of

these are absolutely essential to growing our economy.

Yes, the plan would call of a lot of spending, but the

ripple effect actually would generate more in taxes

than the expenditures. The modern countries I named

above spend three to four times more money on their

infrastructure as the United States, and you do not see

them on the verge of collapse. Neither do you see them

with modern healthcare systems that are broken like

ours is and was, before Obamacare.

The American fear of socialism does not stand up

to scrutiny. We already have socialism to a great extent,

but it is backward when compared to these other

countries. There is a way out and it is not the unhealthy

obsession America has concerning socialism.

-Hap Lowry is a columnist for Sapulpa News

Herald. He is a retired businessman, a local public

speaker and writer with a international politics degree

from Oklahoma State University