Socialism is historically for nations that have a significant deficit in resources of production which normally, if sufficient, would enable the country to develop a capitalist base and thereby, a sound employment rate. Socialism, is then, a means of compensating the working public in the absence of sufficient resources. These two dynamics work opposite to each other; that is, capitalism v socialism, caused by the fact that the socialist factor falls on the side of cost of production; therefore, creating a downward pressure on the GDP with a corresponding structural unemployment that is higher than normal caused by an abnormal factor that shuldnt be there. Therefore, rich nations do not utilize, to any great degree, socialism. The only exception is the imposition of environmentalism which bars access to resources reducing it to that of a poor nation. In fact, the environmental paradigm dictates the use of socialism to compensate for their withdrawal.
I’ll tell you a story that makes this laughable: New Smyrna Beach, Florida used to be one of the nicest beaches on the East coast and then about fifteen years ago they passed an ordinance making the area a national sanctuary for turtles to bury their eggs. All of a sudden it now becomes the shark bight capital of the US where big sharks swim just a few feet off the shore. The swimmers stand at the edge of the water watching the sharks swim by. They even caught and tagged a great white just to the south at Sabastion inlet letting it go just in time for lunch. Do you have any idea what this does to the price of real estate where you can look but dont touch. Or take the Montana Protestors about ten years ago who protested because they were no longer allowed to herd their cattle to market across open territory in Montana. One of them was shot sitting in the back seat of a car and the rest of the leadership was arrested and jailed. Or the fishery on the coast of California that had been there for generations all of sudden were ordered to move off the shore. Now these examples of the taking of resources from public reach go too far; out of proportion to what capitalist can tolerate before calapsing.
The US cleared a threshold in socialism with the establishment of Medicare in 1967 that provided its primary purpose in Medicare A that would cover hospital care; and with Medicare B (optional) covering medical services. Up to this point, the US had accepted and assimulated the social cost of Social Security and unemployment benefits. Then during the Obama administration its most wholistic universal venture into socialism came under Obama Care that mandated participation by all of the adult population in the US coupled with Affordable Care covering children thru their immunizations and preschool kindergarden. It became apparent, however, very early on that socialism had reached its tolerance level in a capitalist society with both the original medicare and advantage care bankrupting. When Trump was elected, the mandate for participation was lifted; but ironically, without reopening insurance in the public sector. Thus, if one opts out of Medicare B; they have to fend for themselves to cover medical services; but with means testing beginning at eighty thousand income per year, that ability is very attainable. I myself, opted out of Medicare B two years ago and set up a savings account to cover any medical services which I personally would negotiate and I havent regretted it yet.
The fact is that Medicare is a failed socialist program in the US creating deficits every year requiring the taxpayer to cover thru higher taxes; thats capital and a resource of production. At first, the ratio of the payee to the recipient of services was one on one; now its over ten people to one recipient and thats because of cost. The original Medicare and the HMO advantage plans are both bankrupting. Why not let the people go back to the free market system where premiums can be competitive. Already both the employee and the employer are paying equal shares in the paycheck and those on Medicare plus they are being means tested beginning at $80,000 annual income and up.
The Medicare funds that suddenly poured into the economy caused the Medical industry to go through the roof and now young couples can’t afford medical care for their children without government help. In otherwards, the push upward created by the rush of US dollars, more than consumed the benefit originally anticipated caused by the fact that the cost of medicine is not static but dynamic and when participation increased so dramatiically so did the cost until finally young couples, far from 65 years of age, couldnt afford medical care.
Dependency is anti-democratic and impoverishing. The American people are going to loose their freedom if they don't trash this failing socialist nightmare. What the federal government wants to do is shift everything into Medicaid for the poor at the state level and reopen the public sector for everyone else as it used be. We wouldn’t be any worse off; indeed we would be better off because we would have regained control of our pocketbook and control of the market place which responds accordingly to consumer demands.
Original source can be found here.
