Why are Americans Anti-social(ism)?
Are some Americans trying to portray socialism as the new communism?
Image via wikipedia
Please don’t think that this is going to be one of those tiresome anti-American rants that seem to pop up on the internet every now & again. I have an awful lot of time for many things American, in fact I think that in the fields of TV & music, they leave us Brits standing. However, every so often, I see or read something that makes me shake my head in disbelief. (Voting George W Bush in as president being the ultimate example!)
The latest trend that has started to be reported on in our newspapers & TV news is the apparent hi-jacking of the word “socialism”. The first examples I noticed were at demonstrations against President Obama’s proposed health care reforms. This opposition itself I find hard to fathom, how can a civilised nation in the 21st century allow families to be bankrupted & made homeless because one of its members has had the misfortune to become ill!? Americans, per head of population, are the most generous contributors to charities worldwide. How can they baulk at paying a little extra to make sure their own people have access to free healthcare?
At these demonstrations I noticed what I consider a worrying development – many of the placards being carried used the word “socialist” in a way that, during the MacCarthy years, ”communism” was used. As someone who is proud to call myself a socialist I feel very aggreived that some group in America is trying to portray left-of- centre political views as a new form of communism. It is nothing of the sort. Do these demonstrators not know that Tony Blair & Gordon Brown, 2 of America’s staunchest allies in recent years are both members of the British political system’s socialist party, (i.e. the Labour Party)?
If you are reading this in America, would you please point this out to any misguided souls who do not know these facts the error of their ways? The word social should give a clue that socialism is about caring for other people. A pleasant party is described as a social event, whilst somebody being obnoxious & rude is described as anti-social. Explain this to those people. Oh, & by the way, much of what has been reported about the British healthcare system is totally wrong. It has its faults, but it is an excellent organisation that looks after ALL the country’s citizens. A great country like America deserves a similar system.
Liked it
User Comments
raman13
On August 17, 2009 at 12:22 pm
very nice
Chuck
On August 18, 2009 at 2:12 am
For all it’s faults the free enterprise system has brought American to heights that no other country has realized. Capitalism is interesting because the thing that makes it work so well is also the thing that can make it so evil.
It’s the individual doing what’s best for themselves that make capitailism so strong. Work you ass off and reap the profit. Sit on your ass and you go homeless. It’s an effective combination.
The true brilliance shows through when people combine this with genuine kindness and altruism for those who are less fortunate. It’s this balance between do what’s best for yourself and helping others is the delicate part. Too much for yourself and you become everything that is promoted to be evil and wrong. To much giving o others and you lose interest in succeeding since the wold is a bottomless pit of need. But this is also an indivdual choice. Which means you have a bell curve of evil to good. I believe the middle of that curve is mostly good. JUst look at how capitialist societies give whenever another country is in distress.
Many Americans think that what’s wrong with our health care system can be tweaked with a few new rules and some common sense. The current government wants to make dramatic sweeping changes to whole thing. Personally I prefer carefully considered small tweaks. Obama and followers go around lamenting that 50 million people in American have no health care, well OK, but 250 million do, and most of those are ok this the care they have. Keep in mind that out of the 50 million without healthcare, about 30-40 million are illegal aliens. Strangely they always seem to get medical care, and for free.
I think some Americans understand the British system and the leanings of it’s leaders. And as much as we genuinely love our cousins across the pond, we don’t want the UK’s political system or the increased intrusion of government into our lives.
That means we really don’t like government getting involved with our leading businesses. A good example is what just happened with the auto companies. In October of 2008 the government and press were peeing all over themselves with worry about the three major auto manufacturers. The US dumped tens of billions into the companies to keep them afloat. Everyone I knew with the least bit of business sense was outraged. Seems mean, but it must be done. Because that’s not how a healthy capitalist society works. You let the weak companies go under. One of two things can happen. The companies assets will be sold off to the highest bidder and the good parts of the the dead companies will live on. Who wouldn’t’ want the tooling and rights to the small block Chevy V8. Or the Corvette, or name dozens of other bit and pieces. The other possibility is to let the companies fail and reorganize under bankrupcy protection.
But no. The utter lack of understanding by our congress, the Bush administration, then the Obama administration funneled tens of billions into failing corporations that had no chance. We just delay the inevitable, we actually streched out the suffering of those who lost their work. People would have been far better of it the the billions would have been used to help the unemployed directly while waiting for the businesses to sort themselves out.
6-8 months later GM and Chrysler failed, filed for bankruptcy protection and then emerged from that. The government bailouts did not work. In the end the capitalist system worked as it should have. Things are slowly getting better now, but not because of government meddling, but because of American spirit.
Stacey
On September 10, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Interesting posts. As a Canadian who greatly cherishes our universal health care, I strongly agree with Terry. I want to make one thing clear though – Canada’s health care is NOT “socialist” by definition b/c it is NOT gov’t run at all. It is largely gov’t funded (70%), but it is privately delivered by doctors who work for themselves, not for the gov’t. And the hospitals are run by not-for-profit hospital boards.
My husband is American who has spent a lot of time living in both Canada and the US, and he agrees that the US health care system is a disaster and he’d take Canada’s system over the US system in a heart-beat. He has family who have directly experienced the horrors of a US system that puts profits before patients. More than just minor “tweaks” are necessary when so many people risking losing everything they’ve ever worked for b/c they are uninsured or underinsured (and could be dropped by their insurance company at any moment for some obscure reason). That’s just wrong. The insurance companies, by the very nature of their business, will always do whatever they can to take more money from people and offer less in return. That’s not an issue of capitalism or gov’t interference, that’s just immoral for a great country like the USA.
Chuck – I totally agree that the US grew to its position as a global super-power b/c of the focus on individualism and free market. I agree that Capitalism is essential for growth and prosperity, but pure Capitalism doesn’t work any better than pure Socialism. There needs to be a balance – a Capitalist society with social safety nets to ensure the greater good of society. After all, greed is at the core of human nature and when you only care about yourself and ignore the poor and disadvantage, that group of people grows even more hostile and resentful and resorts to violence to get what they want and need. Look at Africa for an example of “every man for himself”. I think it’s obvious that the rest of the industrialized world (many countries that have standards of living just as high as the US) understands that in a civilized nation, health care should be a RIGHT, not a privilege…..just like access to quality, affordable education, safe communities, reliable roads and highways, etc.
Post Comment