I initially planned to call this article Democracy v Socialism but I literally could not think of any country that does not incorporate socialism into its political structure.
Most countries are a hybrid of social, political and financial systems.
Also, most of them fail a portion of their population, including the USA.
I’m certain that some of you doubt my position so let’s clear that up immediately.
If you are a citizen of the USA you owe a great deal of deference to our constitution.
The US constitution mandates socialist powers to the federal government; Article 1, Section 8 provides the authority for the federal government to establish post offices and post roads; to declare war; to raise and support Armies; to provide and maintain a Navy; to create a national Supreme Court that supersedes lower courts.
There are also sections that defer to states rights but also enable socialist powers to the states such as in overseeing elections in Article 1, Section 4.
Do you want to be able to vote for your president, or your local and state representatives? Your state has a socialist mandate to empower you.
So, the USA has a democratic republic to govern its capitalist financial system. It does this by implementing a socialist infrastructure that enables businesses to exploit workers at subsidized expense.
Don’t want to locate your business in a densely populated urban area where the taxes are high?
OK! The city will build a public transportation system that will move workers out to your cheaper remote location.
God forbid you should bear the burden of your capitalist enterprise!
Sorry, that sounds really bitter. Not sorry, I am really bitter.
In the early days of this union of states our postal system was a wonder of the world. It enabled an unprecedented level of communication and commerce. Today that system is augmented with capitalist interlopers like FedEx and UPS that benefit from the socialist roadways and other systems that enable their businesses. This is similar to the capitalist security and logistics companies that augment our socialist military.
Most countries have socialized mail and military systems. This is why I designate socialism as a nearly global phenomenon.
There is an anomaly in the Scandinavian countries where the democratic-socialist populations are consistently referred to as the happiest in the world.
Sweden privatized their mail system decades ago and has had few complaints since. Of course, the Swedish government is enforcing regulations on the capitalist entity that has taken over operations, but so far service and price have remained good.
I realize that the US is larger than all of Scandinavia and we also maintain the largest military force in the world. This is not really an equal comparison. There never has been an equal comparison in known history to the influence the USA can wield in world-wide social, political, and financial affairs.
Here is a partial list of our socialist underpinnings:
Military: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Space Force, Corp of Engineers, Coast Guard
Intelligence: FBI, CIA, NSA, DHS, Secret Service
Governments: Federal, State, County, City
Courts, Licensing, Permits, Zoning
CBP, ICE, DNR
Prisons
Hospitals
Public Schools, Universities
Public Parking, Rest Areas, Highways, Roads, Bridges, Tunnels
Locks and Dams
Welfare, Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, Food Assistance
National, State and Local Parks
Police Department
Fire Department
Public Libraries
NASA
I keep coming up with more that could be added but you get the idea.
A quick search of the internet tells me that somewhere between 6% and 20% of our citizens work for a government institution. I’m not surprised by the wide range in these figures as the variables could affect the outcome dramatically. Just the same as I don’t trust the official unemployment figures. But governing the largest economy in the world is obviously very labor intensive.
Socialism is a system of human governance that incorporates production.
Capitalism is a system of production that incorporates humans.
I like the brevity and contrast to these statements but in the US, we don’t really have socialist production. That is what we attribute to socialist and communist countries.
For capitalism, the ultimate form of government is fascism.
Government power is consolidated and those powers resonate with the national corporations. The mandate is for maximum return on capital investment.
Government regulations that protect humans and their environment can be discarded.
The result is increasing profits and a political alliance with business that is encouraged to press down harder on its captive audience. They are used as a resource without regard to their rights, and they are usually pitted against each other by race or religion. One side is vilified and enslaved while the other gloats in their privilege while privately fearing that they will be the next victim.
Human civilization is in the midst of a revolution in communication and transportation.
Starting perhaps with the roman roadways; through railway and highway; to the development of air and space for travel.
Communication went from line-of-sight methods like flags and signals; to telegraph and telephone wires; to wireless radio, television and now the internet.
Technologies are always improving but we have reached a plateau where a human can travel anywhere on the planet in a short amount of time, or stay in one place and communicate instantaneously with most of the other people on the planet.
Let’s look briefly at the effect of capitalism on a different government system.
Our largest example of communism; China is currently using the internet to keep control of their power structures.
They have incorporated aspects of capitalism relatively recently into their society with the unsurprising result of rising disparities between the rich and the poor.
But the conditions for the poor have improved so dramatically that it must be considered a great success at this point. Poverty has been effectively eradicated and those considered poor has dropped from over 50% to just around 10% after 40 some years of capitalist practices.
The USA has a poverty rate of at least 10%, but again, it would require a deep analysis of the statistics to know if the comparisons are fair.
Considering all countries to be a hybrid of systems, one of the best indicators of its success is whether people want to get into or out of that country.
The USA has a waiting list for legal immigration as well as a steady stream of illegal immigration. There are people leaving the US all the time for travel or living abroad. However, these people are not impeded by the government unless for legal reasons.
Comparatively, North Koreans have been shot down trying to flee to South Korea through the DMZ or over the northern border to China, and there is little interest globally to visit, much less live in communist North Korea.
But how would it look if the poor in the US started to save up to move to China where they could live a better life? Or if the migrant workers and hordes of illegal immigrants from central and south America simply left the continent knowing that a better life awaited them in China than America?
Yes, our shining city on the hill can fade. We are not doing enough to maintain it.
Socialism is still analyzed based on the historical examples rather than its potential applications.
As the tools to educate and communicate improve, so does the opportunity to improve government.
The ultimate expression of this may be a non-representative government. One where everyone votes directly on large decisions while artificial intelligence implements the logistical plans.
It is dreams like these that keep me moving forward.
The United States of America is a republic which means it is “of, by, and for the people” of the country; It is a democracy because those people elect their representatives in government; It utilizes capitalism so private citizens or their businesses can risk their own capital in the hope of profit; It utilizes socialism to connect and protect the framework of the nation as directed by our constitution; It utilizes additional elements of socialism as the failings of a pure capitalist system become intolerable to the republic.
All of these elements have been studied in depth for centuries and deserve continual debate.
To use the term “socialist” as an insult is a denigration of our constitution.
To acknowledge that the United States is deliberating the degree to which they want to employ socialist programs is critical to having an intelligent discussion by an informed population.
For me, as long as there are families living in cars and tents, people begging for help on the streets, patients who cannot afford their own care or medicine, and crime due to desperation, then we have not implemented enough socialism.