It is baffling how much vitriol is directed at government. The easiest way to discredit anything is to associate it with the institutions set up by the Founding Fathers and comprised of the people we elect to represent us.
We worry about "nationalized banks" in the financial sector. Never mind the maleficence of the people in those banks that brought our economy to its knees. We worry about "Government Motors." Never mind that the "professionals" in General Motors had fallen hopelessly out of touch with their consumers, threatening a tidal wave that would have turned recession into depression.
When I talked to a staff member of Rep. Howard Coble about a public option for health care, he practically spit out the words "government-run health care." (I didn't have the heart to point out that he was working for a member of the U.S. House of Representatives who had been employed in government in some fashion since 1967 -- likely before the young man was born.)
There is little wonder that the Republican Party, champion of big business and small government, would try to couch every issue in terms of socialism versus capitalism. Their success depends upon fostering and exploiting that perception.
If you Google the words "capitalism versus socialism," it returns 26.9 million hits. For the right, that's 26.9 million calls to arms. For the rest of us, that's 26.9 million instances of a contrived dilemma. Let us concede that government is not, cannot be and should not try to be the answer to all of society's ills. The problem with conservatives' constant assault on government is that private markets aren't any better.
It wasn't our government that came up with the idea of using sub-prime mortgage baked derivatives as currency. That came to us courtesy of an overly creative and underregulated financial sector.
Purveyors of the socialist conspiracy theory speak of governments and markets as though they are mutually exclusive. While it is true that there is a natural (and healthy) tension between our government and our private sector, it is just as true that for our economy to succeed business and government must be interdependent.
If the private sector is the engine that produces the revenue that drives the economy, then responsible government oversight provides the rails that keep that engine from flying off the tracks.
Rather than engaging in an emotional debate over which sector is more virtuous, we should be dispassionately assessing the purposes to which each is best suited.
Capitalism is the reason I can go to Walmart tomorrow and buy a computer for $400 that's 10 times better than the computer I paid $1,200 for 10 years ago. But it's also the reason that a stent can cost $3,000 and why medical insurance premiums have been increasing four times faster than the rate of inflation.
Government has long played a role in endeavors where the wellbeing of society should reasonably outweigh the profit motive. We trust things like national defense, law enforcement and management of infrastructure to government.
Unless we believe that poverty is a crime that should be punishable by death or that our collective wellbeing is not jeopardized when those who cannot afford (or have been denied) health insurance also cannot afford to be too sick to work, then it makes sense that government should have a role in making health care affordable.
We hear so often that government can't do anything right that it's easy just to accept it as fact -- but it's not. My mom's Social Security check goes into her checking account every month like clockwork. I don't worry when I send a letter.
I know health-care providers who would rather deal with Medicare than private insurers because the rules are clearer and the payments prompt.
At the end of the day, it's not a matter of whether the private sector or government sector is more virtuous. It's a matter of which is better suited to a given endeavor. The rest is piffle.
Kevin Smith lives in Aberdeen. Contact him at kevinasmith@gmx.com.
It wasn't our government that came up with the idea of using sub-prime mortgage baked derivatives as currency. That came to us courtesy of an overly creative and underregulated financial sector.
Purveyors of the socialist conspiracy theory speak of governments and markets as though they are mutually exclusive. While it is true that there is a natural (and healthy) tension between our government and our private sector, it is just as true that for our economy to succeed business and government must be interdependent.
If the private sector is the engine that produces the revenue that drives the economy, then responsible government oversight provides the rails that keep that engine from flying off the tracks.
Rather than engaging in an emotional debate over which sector is more virtuous, we should be dispassionately assessing the purposes to which each is best suited.
Capitalism is the reason I can go to Walmart tomorrow and buy a computer for $400 that's 10 times better than the computer I paid $1,200 for 10 years ago. But it's also the reason that a stent can cost $3,000 and why medical insurance premiums have been increasing four times faster than the rate of inflation.
Government has long played a role in endeavors where the wellbeing of society should reasonably outweigh the profit motive. We trust things like national defense, law enforcement and management of infrastructure to government.
Unless we believe that poverty is a crime that should be punishable by death or that our collective wellbeing is not jeopardized when those who cannot afford (or have been denied) health insurance also cannot afford to be too sick to work, then it makes sense that government should have a role in making health care affordable.
We hear so often that government can't do anything right that it's easy just to accept it as fact -- but it's not. My mom's Social Security check goes into her checking account every month like clockwork. I don't worry when I send a letter.
I know health-care providers who would rather deal with Medicare than private insurers because the rules are clearer and the payments prompt.
At the end of the day, it's not a matter of whether the private sector or government sector is more virtuous. It's a matter of which is better suited to a given endeavor. The rest is piffle.
Kevin Smith lives in Aberdeen. Contact him at kevinasmith@gmx.com.
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