One of the fab things about living in Seattle is the high level of political literacy. This means I don’t have to argue with people who still think that the cold war is going on and that the worst threat to democracy is Communism, or as someone wrote on another blog “Communism’s limp-wristed cousin, socialism”.
First- the limp-wristed insult, to which I’d like to say “excuse me, your fox news education is showing”. Resorting to gay bashing doesn’t really make a point, but shows some serious levels of teh stoopid.
Second- here’s a little edumacation for those not so lucky to live in politically astute places.
Communism, democracy, theocracy, monarchy, anarchy, totalitarianism- these are all political systems. They tell us how we want to choose those who would have power over us,what laws they will use to govern and how we will limit their power. Ideally in communism, democracy and anarchy the people have direct control over power, but only anarchy and communism believe that eventually people’s best natures will show through and everyone will behave themselves. Democracy is a bit more realistic about people’s better natures and gives us a way to get rid of asshats through the vote.
Capitalism and socialism are economic systems. These systems tell us how we choose to allocate resources. Pure free market capitalism relies exclusively on competition, socialism relies on cooperation. Capitalism is not exclusive to democracy, quite contrary actually. Fascism is ACTUALLY capitalism attached to totalitarian political structure. Socialism is not anti-democracy either, quite the opposite. Socialism works best when people get to choose it.
Now I may come off as a pinko liberal commie,but I am not in any way, manner, shape or form a communist. I love democracy. I love being a part of shaping the government and I love that everyone in a democracy gets a chance to do that. I want more democracy, not less. I want national referendums and for every single citizen to get to vote easily- including people with criminal records. But when it comes to economics, I am actually a hybrid kind of girl.
For all my proggy tendencies, I don’t think all capitalism is bad. I like the stuff that capitalism produces, like the computer I am sitting at now and the vast array of shoes that currently fill my closets. Capitalism works best for items where the consumer can get near perfect information. I know how many pairs of shoes I need (and how many pairs of shoes I want)and what kind of shoes I want. I also know what I need my computer to do (music, videos, email, word processing, photo editing) and what I don’t need it to do (video games, TV or DVD watching). Competition insures that I can get what I want at a price I am willing to pay.
Then there are things I need that as an individual that I will never get perfect information for. Health care is one of those things. I don’t know if I will live to be 80 without ever suffering from an expensive disease or if I will get hit by a bus tomorrow. The uncertainty factor in health care makes it impossible for me to competitively shop for it. But governments can get near perfect information on health care. They may not know which individuals are going to get cancer or be hit by a bus, but they have pretty good numbers for how many individuals get hit by a bus or get cancer and how much treatment for those things will cost.
Then there are things where I know how much I’ll need and what price I can pay, but the difference in quality doesn’t just make for an unpleasant experience but for a life or death situation. These things include spinach, where i would like some guarantee that trying to get my Popeye on won’t land me in the hospital with kidney failure due to shoddy farming practices. Also, children’s toys. I may know just how good or bad the Kid’s been at Christmas, but taking a lead paint detector with me to the store is not very practical.
For situations like food quality and toy safety, relying on competition alone won’t work. We can’t afford to wait for people to die of ecoli before grocery shopping so that we know what brands of spinach are safe to eat. That is where government regulation comes in. I know in little libertarian fantasies there is no government regulation of anything because competition in the free market will eliminate producers of bad goods. I invite all libertarians to become my personal food and water testers if that dream comes to fruition. I’ll even make the delicious spinach salad with a bacon ecoli dressing, but they have to take the first bite.
I’ve been interrupted by students so many times writing this post that I can’t remember what the original point was. Oops.
