Joseph Goebells "To be a socialist is to submit the I to the thou; socialism is sacrificing the individual to the whole" (AZ Quotes). Socialism is a philosophy feared by many, and adored by many. It has been around for over 200 years, and has been very successful in countries like Canada and Sweden. The conversation has been very persistent however if implementing more Socialist philosophies into the United States would be beneficial to the country. People across the the entire country have been opposed to Socialist philosophies due to many citizens believing that socialism has aspects of communism or could lead to communism if implemented enough, or more importantly, many people believe that Socialism would not be as beneficial as the current system. However, every country has mixed systems to some extent. For example, things like public education, interstates and highways, and social security, are all things that the United States has been using for years that are in fact Socialist practices. The aspect of the individual giving up something for the community, in this case, money for these facilities to be maintained, is a Socialist idea. With this in mind, the United States does have aspects of Socialism within it, however not nearly to the extent of countries like Sweden and Canada, who are considered much more close to pure socialist societies. This brings up the question of "If the United States increased the amount of Socialist policies in many more fields, would this be beneficial to the economy more than the system already in place?" In looking at the impact Socialism would have in the medical fields, education fields, and the global use of Socialism, one can come to the conclusion that Socialism would not be beneficial to the United States. 

First, one of the biggest areas that socialism would impact if implemented more into the United States, would be the medical field. Right now health insurance is one of the biggest expenses for citizens on a yearly basis. For example, it currently on average costs one person in the state of South Carolina 2,988 dollars per year (Value Penguin). Although this does cover many different aspects of health procedures the nearly 3,000 dollars a citizen pays would not cover all of the health charges in a year, especially if the citizen runs into serious health problems. And for those who cannot afford health insurance, they will pay for the procedures and medicine for their ailment, which can lead to massive amounts of debt. With Socialism, the need for health insurance would be eliminated as the policy would be that medical expenses would be paid for by the government. This would eliminate the thousands of dollars many people deal with after going through an expensive operation. This concept is called Universal Healthcare, and it is a type of healthcare that allows everyone coverage regardless of race, gender, pre existing conditions, or wealth (Study). This would mean that all that one would need to qualify for universal health care, would to be a legal citizen of the countries. This would eliminate the need for private health companies that deal with health insurance and paying for the costs of hospital bills and medicine. In a single payer system, which would be the system most likely implemented into the country, would put the healthcare system in the country in the hands of the government. The positives with this system would be the fact that all systems would no longer have to worry about health insurance, or a large hospital bill after an operation. The Universal Healthcare system would cut out many variables that go along with the healthcare process and make citizens less scared about going to the hospital if they are not insured. However, the government would now have control over the healthcare system of the country, meaning that the amount of money going into healthcare would be decided by the government. This would cause doctors to lose money as well, as they would no longer be able to set prices on operations they perform. Universal Healthcare would also destroy the market for health insurance, which is a massive industry in the United States, and would very much so hurt insurance companies providing the coverage. Taxes would also increase among citizens in order for the government to provide health coverage for all Americans. Overall, the positives would outweigh the negatives tremendously if Universal Healthcare would be put into place. The best way to compare what would happen if Socialism was implemented to our current system would be to look at Capitalism's impact on healthcare. Although not everyone is covered by the government, the idea of having companies compete for health insurance increases the economy, and creates more jobs. Doctors are also much happier as they do not have the government set the prices for them. So although the simplicity of having the government deal with the health system and not having to worry about health insurance is nice, the economic stimulus that the current system provides over rides the Socialist viewpoint. 

Next, implementing Socialism would also heavily impact education. Currently in America we have a socialist policy when it comes to public education. Citizens pay taxes and it goes towards building schools and paying teachers. However, through implementing more Socialist policies, kindergarten through high school would not be the only people affected. Public colleges would become free as well under these policies. This would be a massive change in our society today, as college tuition is something that causes students and parents to take out huge loans for the tuition, and it sometimes takes students and parents tens of years to pay off the loans. Students also come out of college with a huge burden of debt, while making a minimal salary in their first job. Obviously this immediately catches the attention of current college students, as the problem of heading out of school with the looming feeling of thousands of dollars over their head, would no longer be an issue. Obviously, the money to pay for everyone's tuition does not come out of nowhere. The tuition for students would be paid for through the taxing of citizens. This is not the biggest problem however. Making education for free would obviously open opportunities for students that may not have enough money to pay the heavy tuition, however it would make college extremely competitive to a point where students would be left out. For example, in Georgia, there is a scholarship called The Zell Miller Scholarship within The Hope Scholarship. The Zell Miller Scholarship states that if a student receives a 3.0 GPA in high school, and a 26 on their ACT score, their tuition will be 100 percent paid for. This sounds pleasant to many, as this means all they would have to receive an admission letter from the university of their choice in Georgia, which for most is the University of Georgia. However, the competiveness of admission into UGA skyrocketed once the scholarship was put into place. Although all one needed to be eligible for the scholarship was a 3.0 GPA in high school, and a 26 ACT score, the admitted class into UGA of this year averaged a 3.9 GPA and a 29 ACT score (UGA Admissions). This caused the admissions percentage to drastically increase, especially over time. The current rate of admission is 54.8 percent, however from 1981-1986 the percentage ranged from 72 to even 79 percent (UGA 1986 Fact book). Of course percentages vary each year based on the university's needs, however a 20 percent drop in admissions is credit to the Zell Miller Scholarship. The scholarship, although very beneficial to many students, caused many students to miss out on the education at their first choice school due to the competitive nature of the admissions process. The same concept can be applied to free education. Although the free education would help many people greatly, the competitive nature of free education would cause many schools to increase their acceptance rate, or lower it to a point where the credibility of the University would be questioned. There are some schools that offer programs to where students can attend free, or they charge no tuition at all. There are free schooling options out there, however if college was free for everyone it would completely alter the admissions process in very negative ways. So, overall, the two largest issues with the socialist aspect on education, particularly in colleges is the fact it would raise taxes for all people, even those who do not have enough money to pay for their tuition, and it would incredibly raise the competiveness of admissions for Universities across the nation. 

Next, in looking at the global use of policies of socialism, most people initially jump immediately to Canada and Sweden. They look at how well their country is doing and many people assume that Socialism can prosper anywhere if it can prosper in those countries. However, in Can some Socialism be a Good Thing? by Charles Scaliger, Scaliger is quoted as saying, "The problem with "Good Socialism" is that all examples usually given are countries that were already prosperous when Socialism was implemented; ignored are numerous countries that started out poor and implemented democratic socialism (instead of hard-core Marxism) to their detriment" (Scaliger 13). Some countries, like Greece, have experienced huge amounts of failure with Socialism. Stephen Moore with the Daily signal states, "Greece is already overtaxed, and adding more taxes on the few businesses that are still functioning is only going to ensure their eventual demise too. Meanwhile the Greek citizens have come to the conclusion that fat pensions and cradle to grave welfare benefits are a human right that can never be taken away. That is what they declared in the referendum. But those benefits are going to be lost. Socialism has radically reduced the standard of living of the citizens" (Moore).  This is the one huge problem with Socialism is that if the country as a whole is not doing well and a few businesses are doing alright, the country will still suffer. When things go wrong Socialism relies on taxing the businesses making more money more, as that is the way the system works. However, once these businesses start getting taxed more, they lose money as well. And once they are not doing well, the entire country is not doing well. So the question of whether or not Socialism would work in America is if America is in good enough economic standing to take on a massive change like Socialism, and if the country does will it survive? Quite frankly, the answer to that question is no. America is not prospering in many ways. Regardless if whether or not Socialism is implemented the country is still struggling badly in the fields of education, and the debt overall as a country. These are two pivotal things that make a country great. If things start to go bad economically, America will continue to pile more debt on to the current incredible amount, and end up just like Greece. Many people who support Socialism claim that we would end up like Canada and Sweden, however this is not the case. Through the evidence presented, the United States would end up more like Greece than any other country. This is not adding in the always lurking possibility of a war, which would hurt the economy even more. And with terrorist groups like ISIS overseas the chance of war seems closer and closer every day, and Socialism would only make the country weaker to attacks. So overall, through looking at the impact on a global scale of the United States turning into a Socialist, and looking at other Socialist countries that have succeeded and failed, one can conclude Socialism in the United States would not be beneficial. 

Lastly, one of the biggest questions with Socialism is the question of who it impacts most. One of the biggest things Socialism would completely alter would be the tax system the United States has in place. Again, socialism is about the individual giving things up for the greater good, or the country as a whole. The tax that would be pushed to be used more under more Socialist policies would be the Progressive Income Tax. Right now, the United States has this in place to an extent, but not nearly as much as it would be under Socialism. The Inequity of the Progressive Income Tax by Kip Hagopian describes the tax as "a tax that taxes incremental income at higher marginal rates as income rises, resulting in an increase in taxes as a percentage of income as income increases" (Hagopian 8). This could be good in a couple of different ways. Currently the top one percent of the country has most of the wealth. The smallest number of people contain more wealth than anyone else, including the middle class which is the largest number of people in the United States. The progressive tax allows the wealth to be distributed to the people who don't have as much income, through taxing them less. This would help out the middle class immensely. This would also allow more opportunity for those who were born into tough situations and cannot control the way their life is. For example, someone working a minimum wage job because they did not have enough money, or the opportunities to go to college. The problem with this however is the fact that many of the upper class citizens will be extremely unhappy, and overall it is not the American way. America was built on the aspect of coming to the country and working hard and making your dreams come true. Immigrants have come to the United States for years and years to achieve their "American Dream". The "American Dream" is a concept that describes the drive that Americans, whether born American citizens or not, have in order to make a living and grind from the bottom, to the top. In the speech "Youth, Jobs, and the American Dream" by Robert Dilenschneider he says, "Think of a young person in Spain (56 percent unemployed) or in sub- saharan Africa (49 percent unem- ployed) watching CNN and seeing the good life as practiced in the United States. They are saying to themselves: "I want some of that and I will do what I must to get it"" (Dilenschneider 304). The progressive tax directly impacts the American Dream through designing the system to where if you work hard and make it to the top, you will still have lots of your money taken away from you on account of the people that do not have as much. This is alright to an extent, but when people are giving away more money to the government than they are actually keeping, that conflicts with the American Dream. Not everyone in this country can be as wealthy as the 1 percent, it doesn't work like that. And taxing the wealthy much more than the middle class in order to even out society and evenly distribute the wealth is incredibly contradictory to what America was founded off of, which was hard work and drive will make you a happy person in this country, regardless if you are in the 1 percent or not. 

In conclusion, Socialism is a good concept when one hears it out loud. However, once one goes into more specifics on how Socialism would impact individual aspects of the American citizen's life, one can conclude that it would not be beneficial for the United States. Although it seems to make healthcare simpler and easier, and even cuts down on expensive insurance and hospital bills it wouldn't do anything but hurt the economy. Insurance companies would take a huge hit as health insurance would no longer even exist. Doctors would also be extremely unhappy as they would most likely lose money overall, as the government would control the prices of their services. Next Socialism would have a huge impact on public education, especially at the college level. Not only would there be a large amount of tax money needed to send everyone to school for free, but it would create an incredibly competitive admissions process for schools across the nation. Competitive to a point where students would miss out regardless if their tuition was paid for or not. And lastly Socialism is huge on a global scale. In looking at other countries that have been successful and have failed with socialism, its easy to determine whether or not it would be right for the United States or not. In looking at the economic situations in both countries, one can determine that Socialism would not be a good fit for the country. And lastly in looking at the people who Socialism would affect, it is clear to see that Socialism is not a good fit for the country. Socialism is a concept that is enticing and seems right in the eyes of many people. However, it is a flawed concept that would only make the United States weaker all around. 

