Many people think that government programs like welfare, social security, Medicare, Medicaid are all a part of socialism. They are not. They are social programs provided by the government in exchange for your tax dollars.
This is done through the Keynesian economic model. Keynes argued that the government has a moral responsibility to help the people. The state was to respect the key interests of capitalists allowing for investment and control of the business to be left in the hands of private enterprise but in exchange it made three concessions to labour which form the three pillars. The first was to pursue policies to ensure high stable levels of employment. The second was to provide welfare assistance for those who could not work. The third and final pillar was to recognize unions’ rights to bargain collectively to improve wages and living standards for their members and in some cases to participate directly in the determination and influencing of public policies.
Keynesianism rests on one primary idea; you have to keep spending money. If someone is broke, give them money so that they can spend it and contribute to the economy. It’s all about aggregate demand. The alternative is the free market, which is proposed by Neoliberals and Orthodox economists.
In practice the free market system is inherently flawed since it believes that the market will self regulate while the Keynesian system racks up debt like there’s no tomorrow. What’s needed is a balance between the two.
Some social programs we need like welfare for those that can’t work, pensions and free education. Others need to be handled by the market with government regulations placed on them so that they don’t go rogue. For example organizations like the Food and Drug Administration which sets standards for what type of food and drugs are safe are necessary to keep businesses in check.
Now you may be wondering why I didn’t mention free health care. The reason being since I live in Canada I know exactly what it gets you. The government is really bad at managing it and it would be best done by the private sector.
With health care available to everyone, it greatly increases the wait times to be treated. According to the Fraser Institute the average wait time for surgery in 2013 was 18.2 weeks which is about 4 months. These wait times have resulted in increased mortality of people with cancer, cardiovascular problems, hip replacement surgery and other necessary operations. The government also employs all the doctors as private contractors. When the government needs to cut spending, health care is affected since fewer doctors are being paid. That’s why a lot of them come to the US. Donald Trump actually has a good idea on how to solve this problem. Allow for insurance companies from across different states to offer people coverage. That way with more competition, more people are covered due to the lower costs. Imagine someone living in New York can purchase insurance from a company based in Indiana because it’s cheaper and covers everything the person wants.
A balance is required between government programs and capitalism. Not everyone is so willing to hand over half their earnings for government services especially if they can be provided cheaper and more efficiently by the private sector.
There are many people like myself who believe most services can be provided by the private sector and that taxes should be kept as low as possible so we can spend money on whatever we want.
3 month paid vacations may sound great but not everyone wants their money to go towards your trip to Europe.
I know it’s tempting to want a big government to take care of you; I was a democratic socialist once, but are you really willing to pay for services that you either don’t support or have no affect on you?
Perhaps having a bit more money in your bank account is better.
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I have always thought Keynes was only half economics and half ideology. It ignores the fact that only things done and goods manufactured which people want at the price for which they can be made are real wealth. It redistributes wealth and makes people happier (which is great I'm not knocking that) but it's not really about how wealth is made. In that sense it's a more complete system than Hayek's. It's economics adapted to serve people.
The problem is given human propensities and political realities both Keynes and Hayek's systems are corrupted in practice.
I couldn't agree more. Trump has a lot of really great ideas, and this insurance one is fantastic.
The bottom line is that people want handouts. I'm hoping those people forget to vote.
Out of all the candidates currently running him and Bernie Sanders are the only ones that are genuine. I feel if you could blend Sanders' and Trump's policies together you'd have the perfect candidate. Someone that isn't too extreme in either direction.
In the first video he said that Norway switzerland and sweden were the happiest countries i almost lol'd. not currently.
Anyways good read
They were the happiest when the video came out and that was before the mass migration.