Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="SomeGuyDude" data-source="post: 6255110" data-attributes="member: 613531">A lot of what&#039;s in that IS socialized though. Infrastructure, police, fire, post, education, all socialized. Those satellites that your cell phone and possibly TV use are government made, owned, and operated. That&#039;s not even touching upon medicaid/medicare. Or tax-exempt churches.The problem is that people (mainly hardline conservatives, but not all) want to separate the idea into black and white. Capitalism and socialism, mutually exclusive as though the United States were a 100% free market nation which ain&#039;t even close, for one simple reason: the free market would obliterate prosperity if left unchecked just in the same way that pure and true socialism would flatten it.Medicine isn&#039;t part of the market. It&#039;s not a commodity, not a nicety, not the kind of thing that poor people can just do without until they get a better job in the way that televisions and cars are. No one&#039;s ever suggested that the government should be controlling the actual market out there, clamping on means of production and whatnot, just that certain things fall into the category of &quot;public good&quot; and should be enveloped by the government. We&#039;ve already agreed that so many things are, medicine would just complete the package.This is just idle musing so forgive me: I find it hilarious that so many people want to force the poor to have babies they can&#039;t afford to take care of, but don&#039;t want to spend a penny to keep the kid alive once he&#039;s popped out.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="SomeGuyDude, post: 6255110, member: 613531"] A lot of what's in that IS socialized though. Infrastructure, police, fire, post, education, all socialized. Those satellites that your cell phone and possibly TV use are government made, owned, and operated. That's not even touching upon medicaid/medicare. Or tax-exempt churches. The problem is that people (mainly hardline conservatives, but not all) want to separate the idea into black and white. Capitalism and socialism, mutually exclusive as though the United States were a 100% free market nation which ain't even close, for one simple reason: the free market would obliterate prosperity if left unchecked just in the same way that pure and true socialism would flatten it. Medicine isn't part of the market. It's not a commodity, not a nicety, not the kind of thing that poor people can just do without until they get a better job in the way that televisions and cars are. No one's ever suggested that the government should be controlling the actual market out there, clamping on means of production and whatnot, just that certain things fall into the category of "public good" and should be enveloped by the government. We've already agreed that so many things are, medicine would just complete the package. This is just idle musing so forgive me: I find it hilarious that so many people want to force the poor to have babies they can't afford to take care of, but don't want to spend a penny to keep the kid alive once he's popped out. [/QUOTE]

Verification