Socialism: Old Perceptions stifling New Growth
Republicans love hurling the
“socialist” label on anything Democrat because it scares people, especially
older generations who are all too familiar with the word and its vile
associations with communism, a la the Cold War. Certainly there were problems with the way
the Soviet Union addressed its socialist programs, but fear of the idea and its
workings actually stunts our nation’s growth and its ability to move forward. Whether we want to admit it or not, socialism
is one of the elements that have made our country great. If we look at the way
socialism works for the U.S., its benefits and its place in our economy, then
we can eliminate the fear associated with old perceptions and allow ourselves
to grow once more.
While there are subtle differences
in the way socialism can be defined, the underlining idea is that a nation’s
government provides or has some control over certain aspects of its economy as
opposed to allowing the free market and capitalism to govern – simply put it is
government intervention vs. unchecked capitalism and privatization. In the failed Soviet Union, where the
government controlled production of goods, inefficiency reigned supreme and the
world watched and cheered to see communism/socialism fail. Here in the U.S. however, socialism has
thrived. One of the main differences has
to do with exactly what aspects of the economy socialism are applied to. Here, as in Europe, socialism is
characterized by the government providing or subsidizing services to its
people, rather than intervening with the production goods as the Soviet Union did;
an element which is best left to the private sector.
Some examples of the services our
government provides are education, pension, medical care, infrastructure, and
defense. We pay for these services with our taxes and
we all benefit from
them. A free, quality education (well,
we used to have one), access to affordable health care and food, clean water to
drink and working roads allow the majority of us to go about our business, be
productive, and fuel consumerism which keeps the free market afloat and
growing. Because these services are available to the majority of our nation, we’ve
created a healthy middle class which has allowed us to thrive.
The United States is no longer
thriving. When these services are cut then the middle class shrinks and we
become imbalanced. If most of the people
cannot spend money, the economy slows down and we all end up losing. We still feel
painful reminders of that from the 2007 debacle (except of course the people
that broke the law that caused the debacle).
Besides the benefits of allowing
our government to use our dollars to provide social services, there is the
quite negative downside of having them privatized. See, with the government providing these
services there is some accountability as to how they are priced and
administered. If the private sector has control, the only concern is profit
since corporations blatantly pander more to their shareholders than their
actual clients. There is no sense of
accountability. This has happened in
several countries in South America when ‘shock doctrine’ economic policies were
initiated. Eventually the conditions
there became so bad that their governments had to step in and start providing
the services it once was…free education, free lunches for schoolchildren, and
other social service programs. There is a place for socialism.
I do not want to indicate that
capitalism/privatization is evil either and certainly capitalism has made this
country great as well. There must be
balance though. We’ve already
experienced the dire repercussions of unfettered capitalism and remember it as
the Great Depression. The private sector
simply wasn’t able to meet some of the needs of the majority of the populace.
We’ve learned since then that most healthy kind of economy is a mixed economy, with government
providing some social services and subsidies, while allowing the free market
the ability to produce goods according to demand and competition. Socialism
within this context, as opposed to the old perceptions associated with
communism, works well and is imperative to a healthy, growing nation. In fact, it is one element that has made us
great. It is time to change our
perceptions and embrace the fact that socialism is a vital part of this nation,
we fail ourselves and our nation if we do not.
Be well,
Frankie
No comments:
Post a Comment