Political Forum - View Single Post - Democracy + taking care of those who are in need.

JavaBlack · #3 (**permalink**) 01-30-2006, 07:08 AM

We don't have to be socialist. A common misconception created by the right and now accepted by the left, causing them to go more extreme, is that socialism and welfare state are the same. No. Socialism is purposively moving toward a command economy. A welfare state's purpose is to fill in the cracks left by capitalism in order to keep it running. One of the major influences to the concept of the welfare state was to prevent socialist revolutions. The trouble comes when the welfare state gets too big and ineffective as the one in the US has. And it's deeply troubling that many on the left would rather take us further into socialism than repair our off-focus welfare state programs. Ideally a welfare statist would prefer to leave as much to the private sector as possible. But the polarity of US politics has changed that.
But on the other hand, it makes me sick when the US tries to stick its nose into the affairs of other states. If a developing country wants to be socialist, that's the prerogative of its people. Socialism can impair economic growth but that's not our business. It can also help to build the strong state and a tradition of democratic thought in an unstable country and is most certainly way better than despotism.
I tend to think that the lack of charity that spreads in Western thought has more to do with the ability of its citizens to live in their own little worlds, hiding from the suffering of others. In contrast, others might feel so overwhelmed by the suffering of the less fortunate that they hide in their own little worlds. Charity does increase when there is a crisis or disaster in the public view. But the stuff that happens all the time- I think we've grown numb.
Part of the problem is that the left, in supporting their interest groups and in lack of ideas, has not been trying hard enough to reform the bad welfare system into one that is based on education, skill-training, lifting barriers (transportation, childcare, cost of schooling, etc.), and the learning of basic capitalistic skills and mentality. Thus the cons, whose real long-term motivation is to cut programs, have monopolized welfare reform. The left have spent more time defending the failing system than coming up with ideas to challenge those of the cons.
People living in a democracy do care about others and we can afford to. But we're always caught up in our own lives and we don't see the ways in which helping the poor helps us (more responsible and economically productive citizens, less crime, money that would be spent on loved ones with disabilities or in old age instead invested or spent into the economy). And it doesn't help that our inept welfare systems merely reinforce people's disrespect and lack of sympathy for the poor. In the meantime welfare is being reformed by people who want to see the rolls drop more than results. And what is the left doing? Defending policies that are taking us closer to socialism rather than fulfilling the real purpose of a welfare state.