Re: Socialism

[pyat]

From Time Magazine:
"There is no way that the French government can pay for this lifestyle forever, except that it somehow does. "

Yes. The argument that socialized health care and welfare will somehow bankrupt a country is an odd one, since it often comes from strong proponents of free markets, who firmly believe in society's ability to generate wealth. I also hear it from people who claim the military is underfunded.

Of course, that last point may be legitimate in Canada, where the military budget is just 1% (give or take a few tenths) of the GDP. However, I more commonly hear it from Americans, where military spending represents about 45% of total world military spending, and is at the point where the U.S. could annually fund the construction two dozen space elevators instead, something which, P.S., would generate more wealth rather than simply evaporating into accounting limbo.

In any case, the belief that socialized health care and welfare will eventually bankrupt a nation is similar to the belief that continuing to buy groceries will eventually put you in the poorhouse.

Comments

[cargoweasel.livejournal.com]

It has nothing to do with the expense. But many Americans just absolutely cannot stand the idea that someone might get healthcare, or indeed any government benefits that they didn't "earn". It's more of a fear of someone else "sponging off the government". Now, if it's THEM getting a multibillion dollar bailout from the government, THATs just good business.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I often find the fiscal argument is a veil for the moral one, with people complaining about potential abuse of the system. You can have nice things, because people suck.

I once had a person tell me that universal healthcare would not work in the U.S. because Americans are "different" and would work to break the system.

[cargoweasel.livejournal.com]

People love to project their own motivations onto others.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I find it often comes down to a philosophical dislike of the idea of a nanny state - that is, they believe in independence to the point where they're not helping each other out of legitimate holes. There's also the very real (and valid) fear that the government paying for health care = the government controlling their health care, and deciding what their treatments should be (sort of like HMOs do now, only even MORE intrusive - imagine if your HMO had a direct line to the IRS.) The third thing is mismanagement. Many of them don't trust the feds to do anything right, fiscally speaking.

[cargoweasel.livejournal.com]

And yet the same people revere and trust the US military with everything imaginable. Somehow the military is exempt from all that 'government is the problem' stuff. No, it's deeper than distrust of nanny states or the feds screwing it up. It's not that they are afraid the government would get it wrong, but that the government would give health care benefits to someone who doesnt "deserve" them. And more often than not that means poor minorities, or immigrants, scapegoats for all problems.