Is the US becomming a socialist state?
Honestly, this is one of those lines that we hear every once in a while and always creates a big smile for me… Socialist? Really?
What is socialism? From Wikipedia: “Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and the creation of an egalitarian society”. There are less and less societies that qualify for a socialist state, especially since the collapse of the Russian communist movement in the late 80s.
Having said that, I think it’s impossible for even the strongest believers in the capitalism to argue against a limited role of the government in the economy. Depending on the country, many services such as education, health services, the army, energy, etc are often managed in some way or another by the government. Compared to almost any country on earth, the US is as capitalist as you can get. Most “developed countries” have a social solution for health care, while the Americans still believe in using the private sector. Of course, that has positive aspects but also drawbacks that could be discussed for many hours…
But anyway, back to the subject. The recent intervention of 700$Billions of the US government as well as the numerous other actions by the Fed and other central banks of the world is certainly an interesting argument for all citizens asking for more regulation. And while I agree that more regulation is desirable, I think it’s also very important to keep this in perspective. To say that the government should never act is laughable, especially these days.
But too much regulation and intervention by the US government would risk having a much greater impact, to reduce innocation in the US financial system. Already, the US has been losing ground to other financial centers because of added regulations. For example, the laws added following the Enron affair have made it very expensive for companies to have a listing in a US stock market. Sure, in most cases they still will go through the trouble. But in recent yars, London for example has been getting a much bigger share of the IPO’s and thus the business.
With the world economy and the financial sector so digital nowadays, it would be a lot easier to lose important market share to other centers such as London, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore.
Is more regulation justified? Absolutely… But let’s not overreact and let’s think this through…
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When we have a government that gives taxpayer’s money for supports to Oil, Farming etc…then we do not have a “free market.” When the govt bails out the auto industry etc then we do not have a “free market.”
Approximately 50% of our produce is seized and redistributed by the state. No principle still ascribed to is stopping that needle from moving to 60%, 75%, or even 100%. Contrast that with our nations origins when 0% of our produce was seized by the state, unless we were dealing internationally. Bit of a difference?
“To say that the government should never act is laughable, especially these days.”
Oh yes. The “these days” argument. The “modern civilization” argument. The “nothing that has happened before applies to us” argument. The “of course we couldn’t possibly…” argument. Bull. You can either *treat* all people equally, or you can attempt to *make* them equal. The same choice that has existed for thousands of years. You cannot choose both; they are utterly opposed to one another. Socialism has the latter as its goal. Our nation was founded with the former as its goal. Perhaps “socialism” isn’t the best term to describe the specific governmental methods in play, but that’s just word games.
It really doesn’t matter what the U.S. is becoming! In light of the Asian effort we are soon to become a third world entity anyway! China alone has more post-grad students enrolled than the U.S. has high school students! Buick Lesabres and Chev cavaliers are being built in Shanghai as we speak, by peasant girls earning eighty five cents and hour and taught by GM! Radiologists in India are sent by satellite communications x-rays and MRI’s and over-night they interpret them for one tenth the cost of their U.S. counterparts! Honda, Hyundai, Subaru and others buy parts made by fleets of in-factory-dwelling, 12 hour a day, seven day a week working girls – The American counterpart cannot compete! The American infrastructure is too expensive and requires workers to make $18 to $20.00 an hour to support! The middle class in America is about to disappear into the smoke and rumblings of the impending (GRD) great republican depression – itself a manufacture of George Bush and his neo-con co-conspirators unwittingly or otherwise! The American sawbuck is worth less each day, the Euro is overtaking it, and whole countries are pulling away from America! A socialist America, no, America and capitalism in the death throws, probably! The end of life as most Americans know it – guaranteed! We are in for Change!
Uncle B you have most of it right except you need to replace George Bush with Barak Hussein Obama and his ultra left crew (Clinton, Pelosi, Kennedy, et al). It was Clinton’s administration that got the ball rolling with the the real estate collapse it just happened to end up in Bush’s court. Obama now will spend us into oblivion and complete the work. How is your Chinese?
uncle b, your post is as depressing as ever. sadly I dont think it is all that far off.
However this is no left and there is no right. it is all the same BS. if you look at Obama he is the same as Bush who is the same as Clinton et al. They will all do the same thing, grow the government, which is fundamentally the cause of all (well most, they’re workin on it) of our problems.