The answer is actually “No”! The US has a noteworthy history of socialistic policies:

1. Agricultural subsidy: Since 1933, the US government has been subsidizing its agriculture. Even though it marginalizes small farmers and mostly serves the agri-business gaints [source], has adverse impact on developing nations economy [source], and many economists see it as a waste of resources [source]. The subsidy still remains, and is still antithetical to free-market capitalism.
2. Social security: Social security was introduced in the US in the 1930s to help recover from the great depression (yet another spectacular collapse of free-market economy). On a side note, it is interesting to see how every time free-market economy falters, the government steps in with a socialist solution and yet feels insulted when called out on it. Its a program that is still in practice, and is arguably one of the largest socialist program in existence in the world. Despite several criticisms of the program, the White House is steadfast in its commitment to this socialistic program, and will not have anyone saying anything otherwise.
3. S&L Crisis: The Savings and Loans Crisis of the 80s and 90s demonstrated the socialist tendencies of the US yet again. The of the chief causes for this crisis, among others, was the rampant deregulation of the economy (allowing greater influence of free-market forces). When the fit hit the shan, guess what the US government did? Yup, it bailed the parties out, much like Freddie mac and Fanny May. In fact of the total loss of about $160 Billion, the US government, and hence the tax payers, paid for over $124 Billion! They just couldn’t let the market heal itself, a socialist relief simply had to be provided. On a side note, its ironic that the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act (FIRREA) of 1989 which was enacted in response to the S&L crisis put Freddie Mac and Fanny May in charge of supporting mortgages for low- and moderate-income families. Guess who needs saving in the new free-market precipitated crisis now? That’s right! Freddie Mac and Fanny May!
4. Public Education: Yet another (expensive) example of socialism in the US is that public education system. This includes federal (soft) loans, education grants, the public school system, etc. With the US spending over $11,000 per student per year, the public school system in the US is one of the most expensive in the world, and with a 100% of it being provided for free to the students out of the tax payers pocket, this is yet another example of America’s socialist policies.
5. Unemployment benefits: Uncle Sam pays any unemployed citizen a fixed amount as.. well… a hand out, a give-away. Its called unemployment benefit. There are similar welfare programs for other disadvantaged demographic in the society to equalize the opportunities available to them. Now if that isn’t socialist, I don’t know what is.
6. The Arts: The US government support for the arts through the National Endowment for Arts is yet another use of the tax payers money to fund a ‘greater social good’. And not everyone is happy about it. be anything other than a socialist program. Why? Because if free-market were to drive arts, then you’d have private buyers/parties funding the arts, and not the government, as simple as that.

There probably are many more such examples, but I cant think of any more off the top of my head. But I guess six are sufficient to make my point. Despite all the rhetoric of the glories of capitalism, free-market, and the spiteful opposition to socialism, there are many US policies that are strictly socialist, and yeah, Freddie Mac and Fanny may bailout is not in the least bit unprecedented (remember the S&L crisis bailouts), or a marked jump towards socialism. Its simply business as usual in the US of A. So the next time someone says US was always capitalistic and socialism is an evil that needs to be uprooted, you’ll know better than to waste your time arguing with them.

Image Source: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/wbeal/images/socialism.gif

To the left, is a picture of students of DAV College in Chandigargh protesting St. Valentine’s Day and the public display of affection by, well, people. And to the right is a group of people in Manhattan protesting the war in Iraq.

Do you see any difference between the two? No? In that case, let us move to another example:

To the left is the office of dean in IIT Karaghpur (Please correct me if I am wrong), and to right is the engineering college in Stanford [more here]. Now, do you see what I am getting at? Or did I lose you further?

No, this is not a `US-is-better-than-India’ post, this is beyond that. It is about art and its influence on us. Just look at the pictures in the left column, and pictures in the right column. What you see in the left are the symptoms of the artless, while the right is just a glimpse of how art influences life.

It is unfortunate that we as a society are increasingly distancing ourselves from art. This can be seen in the falling quality of our movies (barring a refreshing few) over the decades. This can be seen in the increasing barbaric nature of our disagreements (from the Bombay riots to Godhara to Nandigram). This can be seen in the state of our public utility buildings (the red streaks for pan and tobacco in every corner). What does all of this have to do with art? Actually, quite a lot!

Art is a means of controlled expression. When you repress or discourage art, you lose the means of control, and its only a matter of time before society finds some means of expression. This new mean, unfortunately, has no control (because if it did, then it would be art). This manifests itself as an abomination which we refer to in different avenues as `movies’, or ‘protests’, or pretty much any form of expression you can think of.

But that’s just the half of it. When you lose art, you are not just losing pretty pictures, or soothing music, you are losing the ability to sympathize, the ability to empathize; you are losing emotion and feeling itself. Its all too common to hear a parent tell their kid “Don’t waste your time drawing pictures, its not going to put bread on the table tomorrow.”, or “What good is your acting going to do when you have struggle for your next morsel? Go pick up your textbooks and concentrate!”. And the child will listen, it will do well in school too, but when it actually comes down to having some happiness in life, the child would rather solve second degree partial differential equations than dance. It’s no joke: we are raising a generation devoid of art, a generation with no sympathy. A generation which sees injustice meted out to people, and yet doesn’t react because it cannot feel sympathy. A generation whose eyes don’t tear up to Taare Zameen Par because they ‘get it’ but they don’t ‘feel it’. A generation which looks puzzled if a stranger smiles at them. A generation which doesn’t understand how to express itself and vents itself through hysterical screams, violent mobs, and arson.

We, as Indians, are already building such a generation. We have taken away most of the playgrounds for high rise apartments and multinational corporations. We have already stifled our children’s creative spark for the rote of the textbooks and the multitude entrance examinations. We are replacing the people in our children’s lives with TVs, Computers, and a set of spare keys to the empty house.

There is only so much further down you can go before you hit rock bottom. What good is all the wealth in the world if you can’t shed a tear for it?