I've noticed lately that a lot of people seem to have discovered that Barack Obama is a socialist.

There's a lot of that going around.

Socialism, I mean.

The only politician that I know of on the national scene who is definitely not a socialist is Texas congressman Ron Paul. And look where that got him. During the presidential primary campaign Paul was treated as a laughingstock by his fellow Republicans for such stances as his call for young people to be permitted to opt out of Social Security.

Paul's having the last laugh these days. As you can see in this clip, the entire U.S. economy is now socialist thanks to the big corporate bailout, says Dr. Paul.

And then there is the unpleasant fact that every senior citizen in America is what my Aussie friends used to call "a dole bludger," someone who takes welfare without working.

One such apparent dole bludger held forth at a recent McCain rally in Wisconsin. The old codger worked himself up into a frenzy that even the hot-tempered McCain might envy, screaming "I'm mad, I'm really mad!" and then shouting, "And what's going to surprise ya, is it's not the economy, it's the socialists taking over our country."

The old coot made it clear that the hated socialists are the Democrats. But assuming he was over 65, which he certainly appeared to be, the guy is receiving the benefit of at least two socialist programs. One, of course, is Social Security. There's a reason they called it "social" security and not Capitalist Security. It's a welfare program and the current codgers are getting a free ride paid for by working Americans. True, they paid into it, but anyone who lives a normal life span will get out a lot more than he or she put in.

And then there's Medicare. The current crop of seniors paid a pittance into it during their working years, but they now have the benefit of a system of socialized medicine till the day they die.

Does this guy really want McCain to fight socialism in America?

Imagine McCain told this guy he was absolutely right and as of January President McCain would end Social Security and Medicare and pay back to senior citizens the amount they paid in, with interest. By February, this geezer would be at a rally demanding to have his Medicare coverage restored.

The truth is, Americans love socialism. They'd better. This is a socialist country. Here's an interesting article that compares our government-funded health care systems, primarily Medicare and Medicaid, with other countries:

"The average rich-country government spends 6.7 percent of GDP on health; America's 6.8 percent is very slightly higher. The national health systems of Canada and Britain cost about 6.9 percent of GDP, and that of Australia 6.4 percent. Germany's government spends the most on health care at 8.9 percent of GDP, followed by Norway, Sweden, France, and Denmark."

The big difference, of course, is that in most of those countries the socialized system covers everyone, while our socialized system covers just the poor and the elderly. Oh yeah, don't let me forget government workers. They have a system of guaranteed benefits and early retirement that the typical Brit or Swede would envy.

So our system is socialism. It's just an inept form of socialism. And it's also an unsupportable form. The baby-boomer retirement was going to bankrupt us even before the recent market meltdown. Now we could be on the verge of a slide into Third-World status. I've been to countries where you need to carry a backpack just for the bills needed to buy a beer. It's not a pretty sight.

The only way to prevent that would be to take the harsh medicine that Dr. Paul offered us during the primary season. But not a lot of Americans want that prescription, and I suspect the old crank in this video would be among the last to down a dose of it.

NOTE: Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute just sent me a link to this paper in which he argues that Obama's plan is socialized medicine, as is Medicare. He doesn't deal with McCain's plan, but it is slightly less socialist than Obama's.