Merits and faults of SOCIALISM

With all this talk about the merits and the faults of socialism, I have to put my two cents worth on this matter.

First of all, President Obama is definitely not a socialist. If he was and had some hidden Bolshevik agenda when the banks and AIG failed he had more than enough reason and an opportunity to nationalize them. Those with the car companies are the same story. President Obama very clearly said he didn’t want to run or own the car companies. He had an opportunity to have BIG GOVERNMENT step in and take them over. Instead, he opted to continue a bail out that President Bush started mostly with the purpose of benefiting his rich cronies and those in Wall Street that had caused the problem to begin with.

We have put that accusation to rest for a while now. But let me be perfectly clear. In any given civilized society there is a need for government to run and own certain sectors in the public interest. These are by design either natural monopolies or government entities that have to deal with defense and protection.

We have seen what a mess the Republicans created when they privatized some of these areas and gave contracts to private firms to protect our diplomats, a job that should by all accounts be in the hands of government. We have also seen the abuses and negative consequences that the actions of companies such as Halliburton and Blackwater have caused our country.

There are certain things that could not possibly be privatized: First and foremost our defense. I can hardly accept that anyone in their right mind would trust the defense of our country to a private firm. This is a job that is best handled by the Armed Forces; it is even prescribed in our Constitution.

Then we have certain natural monopolies. Utility companies for example should not be in private hands because of the adverse effects of the profit motive would make it impossible to deliver those services. You could not easily have ten electric companies with ten sets of electric posts and wires running in our back alleys, nor could we have five water and sewer systems.

The issue of transportation and the highways is also best left in the hands of the government. It is hard to imagine roads that are owned and managed by a private company. Can you visualize the tolls? Can you also envision the upkeep that would be neglected in favor of profits? That is a definite job for either the states or municipalities.

Then you also have some kind of safety net system. If you live in an affluent society, you work hard all of your life and you are no longer able to work, then there should be some kind of pension or income allotted to you, either because you paid into it or because others are paying into it. But this idea that Social Security has to be privatized is insane.

We are also screwing around with our health care. It seems to me that as one of the most civilized nations and affluent we should be able to have reasonably good health care for our citizens. We find that we pay more than most countries and get less in return; both in quantity and in quality. The most alarming part of this is that we are spending 17% of our wealth as a nation on health care and we are not getting anywhere near what other nations are getting for more than half of that percentage.

It is also very annoying to me as it is to millions of Americans that the Insurance Companies can hold us hostage to outlandish fees for their health insurance as if saying: “you can be healthy and live, just pay us what we ask” That in a nutshell is unadulterated blackmail.

Education is one area that can also be best served by both private and public interests. You may still want to send your son or daughter to a private school, be it for religious or elitist reasons, but the bulk of education could not possibly be turned over to the private sector. We owe our country that much, we have to prepare our children to be able to function in a technological advanced society, with all the accoutrements of math and science or we will lose our advantage to other societies that are preparing their populations for the advent of higher technologies.

I don’t think that in a civilized society you could possibly have either a pure capitalistic nor a pure socialistic system and thrive. There has to be a combination in order for society to progress. There has to exist regulations and rules to be able to restrict the greed and the ambition. Free enterprise is a great model, perhaps the best economic model but it has to have regulations because greed has no conscience.