No poverty, no hunger, no homelessness exists. Everyone ill receives medical treatment and anyone who wants can go to college.

If you were to visit Denmark, my home for eight years, this is what you'd find. Sweden, France, and other countries have accomplished similar things through the introduction of socialized programs.

Yet, Jim Heddleson stated in his last column that the "socialist elements in the U.S. economy have yet to create the disaster that is the hallmark of centrally planned economies."

Countries like the Soviet Union and Poland collapse because of authoritarian rule and complete control of the economy. I believe a closer look at the topics he discussed reveals either a lack of understanding or a lack of knowledge.

Jim cites the (savings and loan) failure as an example of the consequences of socialistic meddling. Ironically, it is the opposite. The S&L industry was doing well until the regulations governing them were eased.

These regulations kept thrifts from doing anything risky with people's hard earned savings. When the regulations were lifted, thrifts began investing unwisely and eventually crashed.

Keeping "socialistic elements" in place would have avoided this disaster.

An example of poor socialistic legislation is provided by Jim. He is right on this one. But it is not the socialistic nature of the catastrophic Health Care Bill that is bad, just the design.

If the bill was comprehensive and worked similarly to Social Security (another socialistic program), then we might fairly provide health care to all our elderly.

Jim's next misguided example concerns the capital gains tax cut. I agree wholeheartedly that capital gains should be taxed at a lower rate. This would create economic growth and greatly benefit America's farmers. However, the situation isn't so simple.

Several years ago, our government attempted to simplify our taxes. Included in this restructuring was the removal of the capital gains tax cut. To offset this, they lowered the tax on the upper tax bracket.

If we reintroduce the tax cut now, wealthy Americans will have two tax cuts! In the house, opponents of the cut argued for cutting it only if the upper bracket's tax is raised back to where it was.

The last quarter of his paper has little to do with Jim's subject (socialism) and only served to attack Democrats. Does this discrepancy reveal Jim's true nature?

Instead of worrying so much about party affiliation, how about worrying about the American people. We need "socialistic elements" in our society to safeguard people's basic rights.

Education, medical care and other essentials shouldn't be left to the whim of big business. Businesses provides services, goods, and jobs for us. They are our servants, not our masters.

Only when we have a completely healthy and educated society will we begin to realize our true moral, intellectual and economic ability.