It could be good for America, but I’m skeptical it’s going to happen. Certainly not within 24 months.

It already is to a certain aspect. Medicare and social security can be considered "socialism." Which is why there's a certain group that wants to do away with it entirely.

> It is clear to me that 2020 or later there will be a more socialist America, whether the Americans like it or not. And that could be good for America.

I'm not entirely sure. We (I'm American) have an attitude of what befalls a person is because of the decisions they made. We have a very "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" and anything that costs one person money to help another is a non-starter. Look at the Affordable Care Act right now. America is an individualistic society.

Totally agree. Unfortunately, most Americans are too stupid to see that even the phrase is ironic, referring to something that's literally impossible to do, just like the act it refers to in real life is for most Americans.

> We have a very "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" and anything that costs one person money to help another is a non-starter.

And yet there seems to be actual political risk and difficulty to simply repealing the ACA in its entirety without a replacement... because as bad as the ACA is in practice, in theory many Americans want it, or something like it, and do not in fact want healthcare to be left entirely to the free market.

The attitude and outlook you describe certainly exists, but don't conflate the ideology of a single political party to the status of general American culture. We're not all libertarian minarchists and cowboys.

And for such an "individualistic" society, we sure do have a lot of socialism already, such as food stamps, school lunches (hell, public schools themselves) federal student loans, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, the GI bill, farm subsidies, public libraries, etc.

I don't think it's as unlikely as you do. The system is starting to fail for a lot of people. We've already seen the regressive populist shift, in response, and a progressive socialist shift is inevitable. Trump won but don't discount how popular Bernie Sanders actually was.

Personally, I do hope you are right and that the direction this country is moving toward a more egalitarian society where a pre-existing condition doesn't mean a death sentence and that we have social programs in place in order to support a base level of retirement. Yet I also fear that me living in a liberal, leftist bubble (living in Boston, working with Democratic candidates, working in tech) prevents me from seeing what other people feel and think. Watching Fox News or Tucker Carlson opens one's eyes about what kind of "news" other people are ingesting.

Trump may have won the election, but a lot of people supported Bernie Sanders as well. And the blowback the Republicans got from their own constituents after trying and failing to sell a repeal of the ACA happened, mostly, because no one but the independently wealthy and corporate interests wants to see it replaced with nothing but the free market.

And when Republicans don't even trust Republicans with healthcare, it suggests a massive failure of messaging on their part.

Socialism isn’t the problem, it’s decency. If you look at corporations, we’ve had a very strong socialistic corporate culture for some time. People who make almost nothing are the least capable of avoiding taxes that do exist, even if they are lessened. Large corporate entities on the other hand, are often given negative tax bills for reasons I can not begin to fathom.