[sown]

I think people are talking past each other at this point.

When you say "socialism" what exactly do you mean? I think it is one of those words that has lost its meaning since there are so many different definitions of it and we're not always on the same page.

[sown]

I'm being down modded for this? It's an honest question.

edit: :( what did i do?!

[khafra]

Last line in the guidelines: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

If you're upset about being downmodded, I'd suggest

1) Carefully re-read your comment, looking for ambiguities or excessive partisanship.

2) Look for patterns in the rest of the comments--I'd expect downmods on a "government actually handles [common scenario] pretty well" post in a thread full of mises.org and lew rockwell references; and just resolve to live with it.

3) Just wait. Sometimes there's two or three quick, reflexive downmods that can dent your self-esteem, but often your comment's opinion-o-meter will rise hours later, and leave you feeling rather silly if you added another comment just to complain about downmods.