With all of the talk in the news about President Obama's stimulus plan, the budget, the deficit, and then of course the new health care plan, a lot of different things are being thrown around by democrats, republicans, liberals, conservatives, and the like. Many conservative talk-radio hosts (i.e. Rush Limbaugh, and Glen Beck), and many conservative news organization (i.e. Fox News) are calling President Obama's administration a “socialist” administration, attempting to turn this country into a socialist country. In fact, it's been used since the election, yet somehow I don't know why it's being thrown out there as a bad thing—yet maybe I missed something.
See, here's where I'm confused—the republicans, the conservatives, the non-liberals basically, are trying to muster up fear among the American people that somehow socialism is a bad thing. Again, maybe I missed something. Socialism doesn't seem like a bad thing?
Okay, let's stop and let me preface, because if I don't, people are going to go every which way but forward with this. I am a liberal—well a moderate liberal. There are some things I agree with conservatives on, but many more I agree with liberals on. So with that said, please take this blog, this commentary, with the lens of which it was written-- a liberal 26 year old gay white man writing about health care reform, and communities helping each other out in times of need and the government's role, or non-role in it. If I were a betting man, I'd probably say that whomever you are, you probably don't hold the same lens as I do—whether conservative or liberal, man or woman, gay or straight, white, black, latino, or young or old, everybody has a different perspective. And because of that, I don't feel my perspective is any more right than yours—it is simply mine, as yours is simply yours. So, commenting, of course, comment away, but be respectful and know that you will probably not change my mind, but simply offer me a different perspective. And that's okay—because that's America. This is my perspective that I am offering you.
Now socialism as I understand it, is the government's role in various things that affect our life. So, for example, we as a people decide that for society as a whole to get better, we want to provide health care for all. So for everybody in our society, we charge a tax, and then everybody has access to health care. It's basically giving control of certain aspects of our life to the government. Now, from the responses I've received on Facebook regarding “why is socialism so bad?” Some have been for socialism, others have been against it, and others have REALLY been against it. I want to take each response I've received from both sides and go through it—and analyze and present my response back to it. Again, a second preface here—I'm using a lot of emotion, and less so fact. I didn't do a whole lot of research into numbers, unless it warranted it—but rather am issuing a different perspective on somebody else's argument. However, I'm not EMOTIONAL while presenting this argument. I'm using emotion as a persuasive tool, as well as logic, and credibility. But we'll get into those as necessary. Let's start:
My friend Rashad writes: “Taxes, in short socialism means more Taxes. Which I don't mind If we can live in a society where we take care of each other.”
So obviously Rashad supports the idea of turning over certain aspects of our society to the government if it means we live in a society where we take care of one another. That's the idea behind socialism, in my opinion. We pay taxes to the government and they run certain aspects of our life. Let's explore this: if we lived in a country where 100 people lived. Our science has unveiled all the latest and greatest health advances. Shouldn't everybody in this 100-person society have access to that health care? Wouldn't you be willing to pay a little of your taxes to ensure you had access? If you didn't, and we went with the system we have now, our unemployment rate in Michigan is 15% approximately. So that means, 15 of our people wouldn't have jobs, which means, they wouldn't have access to health care (because they have no good insurance coverage). Is that fair? I mean, our science has researched all the latest and greatest, but we're going to deny health care to these 15 people, right? Doesn't seem very fair to me. I mean sure, they can go to the emergency room and the doctors HAVE to take of them whether they have insurance or not. Yet, who pays for that? Oh wait! We do! We do through higher insurance premiums. I think mine have gone up each year, haven't yours? So if we were to instead invest a little in taxes upfront so everybody could go, then in the long run we'd pay less—seems like a sound investment to me. But let's move on shall we?
My friend Suzanne writes: “Certain aspects of socialsim are not bad, however it can become a slipery slope when people depend on their government to do everything for them (I.e. Welfare abuse). to quote thomas jefferson "a government that is big enough to give you everything is big enough to take it away". So there needs to be some caution.”
I think Suzanne raises a valid point. She talks about welfare abuse. And, in reality, abuses are going to exist no matter what kind of system we put into effect. Insurance fraud also exists. No matter what way we attempt to help people in this country, other people are going to find ways to get above it, or beyond it, and ways to cheat it. So in essence, for every system put into place, we need to find ways to combat this to keep costs down, which a lot of those combative agencies are already in place and continually monitor and get better. But what Suzanne doesn't do is point out that if we were to find ways to combat this, and we were to find ways to continually monitor it, how it would be a bad thing. As far as her Thomas Jefferson quote goes, we have to remember something here. In America, we ARE the government. The government isn't some elusive institution that we have no say in—in America we have the ability to change those who represent us every few years. That's what is so great about this debate—the majority will have their say and the majority will make the decision. That's why the President we have was elected into office, because the majority of voters elected him. Now, moving on.
Suzanne also writes: “The government needs to get medicare and medicaid under control before they undertake nationalized health. Privitization almost always ensures better quality. I look at it this way, who would you rather deal with, the us postal service or fed ex or ups?”
See, a few people used this argument that the government cannot run something without messing it up. Yet, somehow looking at the way Medicare runs, a lot of seniors seem fine. Actually from all the reports I read and see (and no I don't have them here for you), Medicare is doing exactly what it is intended to do. And as far as the US Postal Service goes—it does exactly what it's supposed to, I think? I drop a letter in the mail, and that letter gets there usually within two days, maybe three if it's across the country. I've never had a problem with the US Postal Service. Now UPS and Fed Ex do great jobs too, and the three of them are kept on their toes by each other. And the US Postal Service is backed by the tax dollar, yet, it hasn't put out the privatization of UPS or Fed Ex. Actually the two of them sprung in spite of the nationalized postal service. Hmm, interesting.
My friend Marilyn writes: “I so agree with all these comments. Coming from someone who both my husband, daughter and myself work and we are not qualified for any type of insurance does really seem unfair. Unfortunately, I have always stated that if you need the goverment to support you with welfare then you should be drug tested like any employer would do. Maybe that way the abuse of the welfare system would be minimal and then maybe we could have nationalized health care.”
Now I'm going to get emotional for a minute, because, this touches a nerve. Two times in the last three years, I've had situations in my personal life where people who are close to me, have been put in situations where they either didn't have health insurance, or had health insurance but were afraid that it wouldn't cover everything. My mom lost her job about two years ago. While at her job, she had great insurance that paid for almost everything medical, and prescription drugs. She takes a few different pills for various things. Now, when she lost her job, she went on unemployment. Not because she was lazy, not because she didn't want to work, but because she lost her job of 12 years. Now, when she went on unemployment, she, like all Americans who go through this, lost her health insurance. Now, thankfully, she was able to switch over to my dad's (a lot of people aren't so lucky). My dad has good insurance that took care of everything medically, but had one PROBLEM. He had a cap on his prescription drug coverage. So now, the pills my mom wasn't having to pay but a small co-pay on a month before, had to pay over $200 a month until she found a job. Tell me, in a society where somebody can just lose their job at a drop of a hat like that, does that seem fair?
I'm not done. My Aunt was rushed to the hospital three weeks ago. Now she's been in the hospital for three weeks. I went up to see her last Thursday. We were talking about life, about love, about everything. I was visiting with her. I asked her when did they think she'd get out? She said she wasn't sure, but she was worried. She was worried about the cost of the stay! Here she is, in ICU, laying in a hospital bed trying to get better. Yet, she's worried that she isn't going to be able to pay for it! Her insurance covers 80%. So, 3 weeks later, she gets a hospital bill for probably 100,000 dollars. 80% is a lot, but so is 20%, at 20,000 dollars. Should my Aunt really have to worry about paying the bill to get healthy? Should any aunt or mother or grandmother have to? Should old women or men have to choose between paying for their medicine or their food on a monthly basis. Should any child go without health insurance because their mom or dad can't find a good paying jobs in an economy where the jobless rate is at 15%?
These are the questions we have to start answering! These are the problems we are facing people! Marilyn, the one who made the comment is a good person. Her husband is a good person. She's got a good family, and they work hard for their money, yet, they can't afford health insurance? It's not fair! Yeah, people abuse the system, yeah people are going to try to cheat it. But just because a minority of people attempt to cheat the system, does that mean we should deny it for all? All of the hard workers? All of the people are are down on their luck? To me, that's un-American. Okay, moving on.
My friend Mitch writes about the “cash for clunkers” taking money out of charity's pockets. Okay, I can see his point—yet, the cash for clunkers program took very fuel inefficient cars off the streets and put newer, more fuel-efficient cars on the streets, and pumped millions, possibly billions of dollars into the economy. It's making us less dependent on foreign-oil too. Mitch talks about the homeless guy who goes without a meal now because of it. Perhaps he wouldn't be homeless if we had better programs to help people find jobs, had access to community education, which would help our country become smarter, more advanced, and able to compete on a global scale. A lot of times you can relate it back to an age-old question, what comes first, the chicken or the egg. In this case, we need to clean up what we've messed up already, and then find ways to stop it from happening again.
My friend Matt says he won't stop questioning what this administration is doing. Matt, I completely agree with you. We should never stop questioning what this administration, what any member of our government officials are doing. If we don't like what they're doing, we have a chance to elect them. The majority of those who voted, voted this administration into office, as well as the democrats who won the seats in the Congress—so let's see what they have to offer. If they mess up, then we can elect new ones. Again, that's American. Matt also says that this country is being demolished by this administration on things that it is doing. He says he'd love to have a debate with anybody about it, and Matt I will be more than happy to sit down and have a conversation with you about your views and my views. This blog is more or less about the health care reform so I'm going to stick with it, but let's chat sometime.
Rashad chimed in again about George W. Bush and liberty dying while he was in office. He talks about it being too early to see if anything the Obama administration is doing is working or not working. He's right here—the ones screaming and hollering are the ones who supported McCain last election. The ones not screaming are the far left liberals and the rest of us are kind of just chilling in the middle waiting. As Rashad says, if you really want to make a difference and support your country, read the issues and vote.
Now my friend Justin says “The simple answer is charity should belong to churches and private organizations, not the government. Helping out those less fortunate IS a good thing, but I would trust the Salvation Army to administrate this action much more than congress.”
I can see where you are coming from on this Justin, but unfortunately it's not working. Look at the example of my mom and my aunt. These are two people who find themselves in unfortunate situations based upon circumstance. Millions of people are finding themselves in similar situations, and there is only so much charitable organizations can do. At a certain point we need to look after our brothers and sisters, as a social safety net. Anybody who holds the belief that you do needs to ask themselves one question: would you be willing to give up your social security? Would you be willing to give up the benefits tied to it in case something happens to you? That is a form of socialism that we all pay into and all support because there is something in it for us (ironically originally proposed by a Republican I hear). A universal health care plan would offer the same thing. And before anybody says anything about Canada's health care plan, before you criticize, check the facts. There is a lot of hearsay about people waiting in long eight-hour lines to get a check up. Unless you've actually been to Canada and have experienced such a problem, it's best not to add that fuel to any fire, because we just don't know. I know a lot of liberal pundits have challenged conservative politicians to go to Canada to investigate for themselves yet nobody has taken them up on their offer.
Lastly my cousin Steve writes: “I pay enough. Justin, you hit the nail on the head. Keep the goverment out of business, and business out of the goverment. If a person wants nice stuff, all ya gotta do is work for it.”
And alas, I think we come to the mindset of many of my conservative friends. The idea that “if you want something, then all you have to do is put your mind to it.” The idea that “that homeless person is lazy, if he wanted a job, he could get a job.” The idea that anybody on welfare is abusing the government and taking advantage of the system. The idea that anybody without a job, doesn't want to get a job. The idea that everybody starts with the same resources, the same ability to do whatever they want in life. I say, such a crock of crap.
I grew up in Westland with two parents and a loving family to support me. From the very beginning my family said “Casey, you're going to college.” They didn't have a way to pay for it, so I had to pay for it. But, I knew that was part of my life. I didn't have to man some family business, or stop high school mid-way through to get a job and help pay the bills. School came first, and everything else came second. Now, somebody living in Detroit, maybe, may not have the same opportunity. Perhaps they have one parent, a mom. This mom is working two different jobs, day and night, without health insurance. She had four kids, not because she a slut, but because her husband passed away, who only had an eighth grade education. Now these four kids have to drop out of high school in order to help pay for the household bills. Suddenly kid #3, Johnie gets sick. She has no insurance, and now has to pay for it out of pocket. Well, actually she doesn't. She goes to emergency where they take care of him, and passes the payment onto us, those who already pay insurance. And our premiums raise the following year.
My point is, we all have different lots in life. Steve, I love ya because you're my cousin, but it's not as simple as “if a person wants nice stuff, all you have to do is work for it.” Johnie is going to have a muc more difficult time finding a good paying job because he didn't have the same opportunities as I had.
I find it absolutely unacceptable that we live in a country with the most advanced science and technology, the most advance health care, yet we have children who go home and who are sick and who don't have access to it. I find it deplorable that there are kids in this country who still can't finish high school because they feel the family bond of helping their family earn money to stay alive is more important. I find it absolutely obnoxious that there are those in this country who make more than enough money to sustain a healthy lifestyle, but are not willing to give a little to help to help their neighbor.
So maybe Rashad is right—maybe it's not a matter of being 100% socialist or 100% capitalist. Maybe the answer falls somewhere in the middle. We're already in the middle somewhere. We have things that are socialist going on right now in this country. And we have things going on that are capitalist in this country. Regardless of what the answer is, we need an answer. The status quo isn't working. The way things are is not sustainable. The country cannot function the way it has been running for eight years, or the path it is still currently on. It's time for us all to get behind our President and see what his answer is. And, if in four years, three more or less now, we as a country don't like the path he chose—then it's time again to find a new leader. But at least give him a chance to do what we elected him to do.
Again, I have friends who run the spectrum of politics from conservative to liberal and everything in between. And politics is one of those topics that people shy away from because they are afraid that it could cause hurt feelings. But if we don't talk about these things, nothing will ever change. How's that old saying go? “The only way for evil to triumph in this world is for good people to do nothing.” Or something like that. Perhaps it's easier when we know what the evil is. In this great debate, my view of evil is different than somebody else's, and so everybody stands up and shouts over one another. The only way we're going to find an answer if we sit down and talk about it, and present our views calmly and rationally. My way may not be right. Barack Obama's way may not be right. John McCain's way may not have been right. But what I do know is that the path we are currently heading is not right.
A person who lives in America should have the ability to have affordable health insurance that covers everything and anything we as a society discover in technology, whether or not they have a pre-existing condition, have lost their job, have nine kids, have no kids, or are on their death bed and just need to stay comfortable. A person who lives in America should have access to an education past high school that doesn't cost them five years of yearly income to pay for it. They should be able to use the education they get to find a good paying job to, as Steve puts it, “to get nice stuff.” As it stands right now, not everybody has this ability. There are people going to bed right now who won't wake up tomorrow because they can't afford to go to the doctor for basic services.
With that said, thank you to everybody who commented on my status, and I look forward to comments on this blog. I'm not looking for an argument, and as I said in the beginning, this is my perspective. You can offer yours, but know that I will probably not change it, but merely broaden it to understand what you are trying to say. The important thing is we as humans are talking about it. Thanks for reading.
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