> They yearn for socialism and this is how they express it.

Socialism is not the bogeyman you think it is. Some of us who were fortunate enough to benefit from living in countries in western Europe can tell you that basic rights such as 10 weeks of paid parental leave including for the father is a very nice thing to have.

Paid leave has nothing to do with "workers owning the means of production."

My employees get a ton of paid leave because I respect them, not because our business is socialist.

You are choosing that, and that is admirable. But in a democratic-socialist country (pick pretty much and country in Europe with the possible exception of Switzerland), that is not an employer being nice, but is the law so it is not up to the employer to decide if their employees get that or not.

I'm sure it is very nice to have extra vacation. That might be why European salaries are lower than US salaries, and their tax rates are higher still.

Behold, a socialist "utopia" where people line up 3 days to see a "free" dentist: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/people-line-outside-dentist-third-... This is probably a little worse than average but I have heard many times that socialist countries with free healthcare will let you die before seeing you, because they simply don't have resources to live up to the promise. In that case you'd be lucky to have cash to get out and see a doctor in another country.

> I'm sure it is very nice to have extra vacation.

Parental leave is not vacation.

You said "paid leave" not "parental leave" so booyah lol

The quality of your comments is so poor it's on a caricature level.

> basic rights such as 10 weeks of paid parental leave

At the and of the day, life expectancy is lower in US than in western Europe.

I always wonder if this is still true for 90th or 95th percentile income in each region

Behold a capitalist "utopia" where maybe if you are lucky your community might throw you a scrap of healthcare once a year https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/economy_and_business/...

They were lining up because their local area had had a significant shortage of dentists, not because of some socialist death panel agenda.

Behold, a capitalist "utopia" where your medical bills being paid can depend on how many people you can share your GoFundMe with, or where you divorce your lifelong spouse while on hospice care so as to not saddle them with debts arising from your end of life care.

Paid parental leave? Western Europe?

Who knew the socialist revolution would be won not through class struggles ultimately culminating in a violent popular uprising by the proletariat, but rather by redefining "socialism" to mean welfare capitalism?

Imagine finding internet humor in an online forum! Fetch the fainting couch!

More seriously, while almost nobody is calling for actual guillotines there is a huge problem looming: income inequality started getting worse 40 years ago and that trend is only going to get worse as automation becomes more capable. Pair that with the demographic trends (fewer workers supporting more retired people) and climate change, and this century is shaping up to be quite volatile compared to most people’s lived experience. History has taught us that one of the greatest sparks for conflict is lack of hope; a slight increase in the taxes rich people pay will reduce that risk and it’s hardly a communist uprising to go back to the rates which balanced the budget two decades ago.