Thursday, February 18, 2016

Is Socialism bad?

I have been following the debate over the US Presidential elections off late, and the fight between the Republicans and Democrats has come down to Capitalism vs Socialism, with Bernie Sanders being the most vocal proponent of Socialism, along with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and the Republican candidates being the most vocal proponents of Capitalism.

I have not seen a lot of people talk of the virtues of Capitalism on the media so far but I have seen a lot many attacking Socialism. If you find main stream media talking of virtues of Capitalism, please feel free to correct me. 

To go to the definition of Socialism, I would refer to the book "The Audacity of Hope" by U.S. President Barack Obama where he states that socialism is derived from an idea of there being a social safety net, to protect people and businesses from failure. The Wall Street bailouts in 2009, TARP bailouts for businesses such as GM around the same time, the health insurance plan proposed by Obama and the US Social Security are all based on this Socialist ideal.

The arguments against Socialism are based on the model of Greece, Portugal , Italy and Spain - debt ridden economies of the EU that have run such high government deficits from socialist policies that the tax levels needed now are unbearable for the businesses to survive.


I think the fair question to ask is what is the fair value for the cost of social good derived from Socialism? Clearly the EU model is too expensive. It will be for the governments to decide where they tax their businesses, but one thing is for sure - Socialism is not bad and just needs to priced right to make it marketable to businesses.



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