Freaking Out Over "Socialized Democracy" ("Democratic Socialism") Is Like Being Afraid Of Oz
Capitalism is by far the most efficient system for maximizing the productive output of a society, but in its pure form, it only passes down the bare minimum amount of revenue required to get a low skilled worker to show up. If it’s enough to survive, then it is enough to motivate labor. That increases when the labor supply is in shortage, but in times like the late 19th and early 20th century, it’s easy to see that this was not always the case, which brought terrible consequences to the working class throughout the industrialized world.
Now this system fueled some serious unrest in societies where it was practiced, which is why it was eventually tempered with implementations of some socialist programs, creating what we call mixed market economies. These include:
- Public schooling
- National Parks
- Nationalized Healthcare (Medicare and Medicaid)
- Public Police forces
- Public Firefighters
- Social Security
The USA is one such mixed market economy, as are all the countries of Europe. Some have programs with a larger scope than others.
What is happening when socialism is becoming popular is not a revival of the Bolsheviks.
What is happening is that people want to increase the number or scale of some of the socialist programs, so that the balance between productive output and personal economic security leans more toward the latter.
So far, the “big scary communist proposals” that have everyone pissing themselves doesn’t even add anything to that list. It simply expands on two currently existing programs. Increasing public schooling from 12 to 16 years, and increasing the age and income range where people can get access to Medicare.
Given the economic instability since 2007, this was a very predictable political outcome.
13.6K views
View Upvoters
View Sharers
No comments:
Post a Comment