If you lean to the left politically, if you’ve ever suggested that universal health care is a good idea, or argued that it’s a good idea for the government to make sure our water is safe to drink, then you’ve probably been called a socialist at some point (or much worse, if that’s possible). Socialist is one of those buzzwords, like synergy or disruptor, that people throw around with no idea of its real meaning until it’s so ubiquitous it’s lost all meaning. In an attempt to be more precise, it’s become trendy to talk about Democratic Socialism, which is actually quite different from Socialism. The academic debate on these things is quite interesting if you’re into political science, but let’s admit most people aren’t, so I’m not going to get into proper definitions here - what’s the point - but I do want to talk about what things really are, regardless of what we call them.
Most everyone considers America a bastion of capitalism and the free market (though some want it more ‘free’). But is that true? Most rankings put the U.S. high in the free market category, but not at the very top. For instance, Denmark, Switzerland, and Canada are generally considered to be more free. The U.K., Norway, Germany, and Finland come in around our level. Why this is important will become clear.
Virtually every OECD country (that means rich) has universal health care that includes a large government component. The only one who doesn’t is the U.S., even though we do have Medicare (socialist medicine for the elderly) and Medicaid (socialist medicine for the poor). Some have nationalized medicine where the government runs everything (UK), some have a mix of government and employer-provided systems (Germany).None of these systems makes the country Socialist, and none of these systems inhibits the ability of business to operate in a free market. And all of these other systems manage to provide health care for all their citizens at a lower cost than the American model. Whatever you want to call it, however you want to provide it, government run/mandated health care works out to be cheaper for the nation and better for the people.
But what about government regulation? Isn’t that really the same as Socialism? No. Just no. For instance, companies are not allowed to put lead in paint or sell foods contaminated with e coli. That’s regulation, not socialism. Companies can’t dump pollution into our water, they can’t require hourly workers to work eighty hours a week without paying them extra, they have to provide bathroom breaks and if women have a baby they must be allowed to keep their job. Maybe some would say that’s socialism, most would say it’s progress. What about laws that require companies to consider the employees well-being and public good when making decisions? What about laws that require women get paid the same as men for doing the same work? Maybe we’re closer to socialism here. What about State-Owned-Enterprises, companies run by the government, like railways, oil production, and telecommunication? Yeah, that’s Socialism. But these things exist in countries like Denmark, Germany, and Norway, and they’re still considered at least as free-market as the U.S.
The point is, most of the ‘radical’ political ideas you see coming from the Far Left are really not uncommon in the world, even among rich and successful capitalist countries. We have a distorted view (and most Americans don’t bother looking out the window) because our two-party political system creates two center-leaning parties and a centrist government. What we consider Far Left is slightly off-center.
If someone calls you a socialist to degrade you, or complains about socialist policies in an attempt to discredit them, remember it’s a label used in the place of real meaning. Everyone uses labels as a short-hand to cover broad topics, but if you can’t delve deeper into the discussion and criticize or defend ideas on their specifics, or compare and contrast an existing system to a comparable alternative, then you’re not having a discussion but are simply throwing up gorilla dust.
Socialism is fine, in moderation. The same for capitalism. And pretty much everything on the board is a discussion of which way to blend the two. The differences can have a significant effect on the lives of citizens, but we’re not really discussing ideological extremes, no matter how much some people want to cast things that way. People are afraid of extremes, often rightly so, but if you fear Medicare for All because it’s ‘Socialism’, but you plan on taking your Social Security when eligible, look forward to Medicare replacing your insurance payments, and say God bless our troops before bed, you need to recalibrate.
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