Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to So Bush and Paulson Are Socialists?

re: So Bush and Paulson Are Socialists?
TB — (archived)

If you want to claim someone is a socialist for favoring regulation in any form I'm going to state uneqivocally that's a load of crap.

I have never said anything like that, and if that strawman was any bigger, it could star at Burning Man. I am constantly being shoved into binary arguments like this. "You don't support nationalized health care? Then you must not want anyone to have health care!" It's as though being against the concept of the Yugo means I don't think anyone should own a car.

Socialism is absolute government control of the economy or a specific portion of it. Any control bears some resemblence to socialism, but no one is for no government control except loons.

My stance is that there is already too much government control of many parts of the economy, and that this is progressing rapidly toward even more control. You can see for yourself the advancing percentage of the government portion of the GDP. There is almost a century of evidence comparing controlled centralized economies to free ones. You'd think somebody would take notice of the results and wonder at what point we should put the brakes on.

I'm not saying the only alternative is no regulations at all, and never have, but do we really need to keep heading for the bitter end of this curve? Have you ever heard a Democrat or liberal say "this is enough. We have enough power now." Or do they always want more?

The difference is whether the control is intended primarily to protect people or control what is produced. A goverment run health system is socialist, but as a democracy people have a right to choose it if they want along with a choice as to whether any other service should be provided by government.

Now you're just dithering. Good intentions don't change the nature of socialism, or the unintended consequences of constant government meddling. Neither does whether or not people voted for it.

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (86 posts)