The rich man’s worst nightmare undoubtedly is the vision that people will embrace socialism. The chronically maligned form of government has repeatedly saved the rich with people’s money when banks and other financial institutions had to rescued under the belief they were “too big to fail.” (AIG alone received $182 billion.)

Sharing wealth or assuming a civic responsibility, ultimately in Christian and democratic fashion, that will improve the fortunes of millions of destitute countrymen is not a priority of the money bags, who arbitrarily and capriciously are labeled the 1 percent.

They, for example, desperately fight for the tax breaks given to them in 2001 by former President George W. Bush, tax breaks that will deplete the U.S. Treasury by more than $3 trillion over a decade. They try to abolish or curtail Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Unrestrained capitalism through globalization has taken jobs out of the country, abolishing any pretense at nationalism, patriotism or a social conscience.

The many countries that flourish under a democratic type of socialism include Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Canada, China, Finland and countless more. This proves that socialism does not need to be the equivalent of communism.

Howard N. Stewart

Manchester