Americans who believe in Socialism, if you were given the opportunity to immigrate to a country with socialist policies, would you?

First, please define what you mean by socialism. That word encompasses a lot of very different forms of government, even when it's used "correctly", and it's typically not.

The Nazis called themselves socialists, and I'm not moving there.

When many people say socialism, what they mean is capitalist democracy with a strong social safety net, strong government regulation, and highly progressive taxation.

Edit: for the love of god, please do a little bit of reading about socialism before reinforcing my point that this word is used terribly. We won't take the wiki as ultimate truth, but please read. Be better. Read and think first. Comment later.

"If you hate the Death Star so much, why don't you go live on Alderaan?"

The notion that free* healthcare, free* education, subsidised transport, government provided unemployment supports etc is even labelled “socialist” strikes me as particularly American.

There are no countries with socialist policies.

Can you name a country that has workplace democracy? No? Then there isn't a socialist country out there.

Would I move to the social democracies of the world? I love norway and whatnot politically (as much as a communist can love the state of any country)... but I love having warm air and nature I can enjoy without a coat much more.

Social Security is a socialist policy.

As is Medicaid and Medicare.

As is SNAP and EBT.

I live in a country with socialist policies already called The United States of America.

But we could use lots more. So I'll stay here, and I'll try to make it that way.

I moved to Germany from the US this year. There is subsidized public transit, universal healthcare, minimum vacation time, a heavy union culture, strong renter-favored laws (although capitalist for profit housing is still an ever growing plague).

As others pointed out, the terminology isn't a great tool for debate without an agree upon definition. But yes, I would move to a country that cared about people over profits.

If you mean the modern idea of socialism, like the nordic nations, then absolutely get me the fuck out of rugged-individuals-at-eachother's-throats-land please, these people are fucking nuts in the not fun way.

https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2020/the-nordic-exceptionalism-what-explains-why-the-nordic-countries-are-constantly-among-the-happiest-in-the-world/

If you're talking about one of the formerly socialist nations that the United States intentionally took covert action against and destabilized to keep the regional markets open for our capitalists to sociopathically exploit like Venezuela, then no thanks, I've already seen enough of that trademark American for private profit cruelty played out domestically in our innumerable tent cities in every American population center.

https://time.com/5512005/venezuela-us-intervention-history-latin-america/

The question here is "What Counts as Socialism?" Because for most Americans, a functioning society already counts as Socialism. No need to be afraid that your kid gets shot in school? Non-ruinous healthcare for everyone? No need to work at 80 just to survive and pay your rent? Workers rights?

For many Americans this is Socialism or Communism (the same people could not be pressed to tell the difference between those terms).

These kinds of questions, aimed at any ideology, will result in a "no" for the average person unless they can take their friends and families with them.

No, I want to fix my own country.

100% if that country is in northern Europe. Hard nope if it's in South America.

I'd buy a ticket tomorrow if there was a job for me in a Scandinavian country and I didn't need to speak the language immediately.

I agree with a blend of socialism and capitalism, and in the right places. The US has healthcare in the same category as PlayStations. I don't think this makes sense.

We should believe in healthy, educated Americans as a common ground. And if you want to save up for a PlayStation, go for it.

Ironically, since the government hasn't fully stepped in to provide healthcare, coverage has moved to the private sector. So you still have socialist healthcare, just with shitty insurance companies trying to find ways to make billions of dollars from sick individuals.

I think we can do better. Do you?

Social(ist) policies are extremely removed from socialism. The countries people list here, aka Canada, Danmark and Ireland among others are extremely capitalist still. This thread is therefore useless.

As a German, I think I would. Given that it is good and just.

Why would I move somewhere that America is planning a military coup?

Probably. If I could get a job with the same standard of living, the moving costs were paid (do not overlook this, it's insane), the paperwork was trivial or non existant, sure. Bonus perks would be language classes and walkability/bikeability.

It depends on what "socialism" entails, but US capitalism has failed me and mine, has caused so much suffering in my friends and family.

I’m an American who has lived in the UK and Australia. Socialised medical systems are fucking amazing.

Fuck, if someone could pay the costs to relocate me to Norway and set me up with roughly the same job and equivalent house there, I would move in a heartbeat.

Yes. Looking hard at the Nordic countries.

Do they have legal marijuana?

Probably not. This is my home and I want to make socialism here.

I did! Hello from Scotland . . .

That really depends. Are we talking immigrate to somewhere with functional socialist policies, or to a psuedo dictatorship with what looks a whole lot like strong man fascism except they promote a few (most often failed or failing) socialist programs? Because I have no interest in moving to a failed state like Venezuela. I'm not going to slaughter and eat a bunny.

We have socialist policies here in the US. We just have fewer of them than other countries.

I mean I already do, we have publicly funded services like firefighters and emergency medical care, the problem is the shit like that we don't do because sounding too socialist scares the boomers

Yes.

Next question.

If I was given a chance to emigrate to Finland, I would jump at the chance. I might be willing to emigrate to Norway. Possibly Czechia, Slovakia, or Hungary.

I'm very much a pro-2A kind of anarchist/libertarian socialist; there are not many countries that preserve the individual right to keep and bear arms while also having state-level socialist policies.

Yep, in a second.

If I never again have to research which of my health providers are in or out of the insurance network for the coverage tied to my new job, or spend a full business week debugging a cascading collection of healthcare company bureaucratic and billing fuck-ups, or be nervous about layoffs making my health insurance exorbitantly expensive, it’ll be too fucking soon.

So according to most people commenting here the spectrum of socialist countries goes something like this:

no socialism (USA) - some meaningless socialist policies but not real socialism (Europe) - absolutely nothing for a very long time - socialism (North Korea and China)

Nice...

I'm a Canadian, but if I had to pick another country to live in it'd be one of the Scandinavian countries. They always top the global charts on happiest and healthiest people and that's almost exclusively due to governments providing very generous social programs. I wouldn't even have to adjust to the cold weather! The hardest part would be learning how to pronounce things like tjugosju

I don't want to leave my family, my community or the places I live near that I love. But if I could trade out my government for Iceland's or Norway's, I would in a heart beat.

A country having socialist policies would not be a primary reason. It would be whether this hypothetical country's socialist policies translate to a better life for myself and my family.

What's the weather like?

In a heartbeat.

But not just any country. I don't like cold weather.

I feel like leaving would be an admission that things cannot change, that the fight is not worth fighting. I find that kind of mindset is not good, one must always be ready to stand for what they believe to be right or can they truly say they believe in it?

Absolutely. There is no hope or faith in me for settler-descent Americans; I literally think it's more likely I die at the hands of a cop in this country than any other possible way. If I knew I'd never have to worry about the exorbitant exit tax, and knew I had a paying job and comfortable shelter on the other side, I'd go as far as to learn the lingua franca and never think about America again other than to "damn, I'm fuckin glad I got out of there before this NEW SHIT happened."

But since the job market is a fraud in and of itself, techbros are by-and-large sociopathic ghouls, there isn't a such thing as a boss that doesn't steal enough of one's paycheck week to week to make flight from America impossible, and most actually-existing socialist nations have lists of pre-existing conditions they don't admit; that's outside of my means, and ultimately an idealist waste.

Sure, Denmark sounds nice. Before they decided to start genociding the disabled I'd have gone with Canada.

Emigrating from the US was the best decision of my life

If it was someplace in Europe, absolutely. I would have zero qualms about ditching this dystopia. Sure, other places have their issues, but few are as bad the the US. With the far right takeover of the Supreme Court, it won't be very long until the "land of the free" is no freer than Russia or China.

No. I would stay here to work toward improving social programs in the U.S.

I'd emigrate to the DPRK if I could, and if they'd take me.

It costs something like $3,000 to renounce U$ citizenship, and that's only if you're able to get citizenship somewhere else.

Even for the few people with skills in demand elsewhere, it's prohibitively expensive.

I would if my career and hobby were the same as it is here. No other place on this rock is though.

I've recently connected with distant family in Norway. I've visited Norway 3 times. I would love to relocate to Norway.

My grandmother was born in the US not quite 2 years after her parents immigrated. I think semi-often that if she had been born in Sweden I'd be eligible for a passport. I suspect that if the barrier to entry were that low I'd have made the move.

Probably not, I am fortunate enough to live in a great place with plenty of wilderness nearby. With friends and family to boot. I'd rather fix what we already have :)

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No because most of those places are too cold

Fucking yesterday

If I was going to be selfish, yes, I would move to a country that has more progressive policies and government. I refuse to be selfish though. I'm in medical school and hoping to become an ER physician in the safety net county hospitals for the express purpose of doing everything I can to help the people that have no way of escaping. I probably would have a pretty easy time taking my medical degree and moving almost anywhere because doctors are in demand pretty much everywhere, but it would be against everything I stand for and would be in complete opposition to my goals. I know that I won't be able to move the needle very much, and as an ER physician I'd be making a difference just to my patients and perhaps my community, but I still have to try. I want everyone to be able to access food, housing, education, and healthcare equally and I can't work towards that reality if I just run away from the worst of it.

Sure, as long as it is unopposed the world and has access to every natural resources on earth.

If I could find somewhere with good social and economic policies and good weather, I'd already be living there. But all the good places are cold.

One problem is the stereotypically ideal socialist countries -- the Scandinavian ones -- have very tough immigration rules

They also have unique circumstances around racial / cultural homogeneity and sovereign wealth / resources that help with cohesiveness and generous benefits -- and those can't be easily replicated

In theory I could just move back to England, but right now I'm quite happy where I'm at. If a job opportunity came up, who knows?

If by socialist policies you mean ruled by a communist party then hell yes. It would be a dream come true to live in for example China.

It depends on the country as socialism covers a very wide range. If you look at Sweden and China they are very different forms of government.

Yup! My youngest son wants to when he is old enough.

Define socialism. The original and technically correct definition and the colloquial modern definition are wildly different from one another.

If I can keep my current quality of life or have a better one, sure.

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You're going to get two answers here, corresponding to the two kinds of socialists: "My kind of socialism doesn't exist yet" and "Yes I'd immigrate to the secretly highly-developed and free nation of North Korea"

It looks like you've got a lot of people that call their version of capitalism "socialism" as well.

Yes but they don't exist.

I'm going to stick in the US until they seem about to start trans genocide on a national level, then I'm moving to the socialist country with the best lgbt rights at the time (My bet is on Vietnam, maybe China though who knows) (besides Cuba but theyre not taking US refugees)

I'm more useful here but I also don't want to die.