NATO members in general are too comfortable relying too much much on the U.S. defense umbrella. It is something the U.S. has been warning NATO members about for a long time. It's meant to be a collective defense. What's happening in Ukraine should be a loud wakeup call.

NATO members in general are too comfortable relying too much much on the U.S. defense umbrella. It is something the U.S. has been warning NATO members about for a long time. It’s meant to be a collective defense. What’s happening in Ukraine should be a loud wakeup call.

I'm fine with NATO members relying on the US defense budget as long as they spend their money on socialist programs at home. The US could provide the best socialist safety net on the planet, and still outspend the rest of the world 40:1 on defense if it would just tax the rich. Tax capitol gains like income as well, and 80% tax on everything over 20 million a year, 95% tax on everything over 200 million a year, and 99% tax on everything over 1 billion a year.

Boom now we can do the best socialized medicine on the plan and have enough left over to build a couple hundred new NATO bases where ever member states want them.

Welfare programs in capitalist countries are not socialism. "Socialism program" would be collectivisiation of the means of production.

"Socialist commodity production" is not socialism either, yet here you are.

You want to abolish commodity production in the low phase of socialism? Lol.

The abolition of commodity production isn't merely a theoretical end-goal to be approached leisurely in about a century. It's a concrete necessity that directly confronts the core mechanisms sustaining global capitalism. This isn't an esoteric, remote future concern, but an immediate challenge to be addressed. I almost honestly can't believe I have to type out something so utterly basic but I guess that's par for the course with tankies and the like.

The material reality of each country calls for specific actions according to the specific needs of that territory, there is no ordered check list a socialist country needs to achieve to be considered one.