It seems no matter how I try, I can't stay away from this health care debate that's raging in the States. A friend of my sister's wrote today and asked if I could explain socialism to her. She was confused by all of the anti-socialism talk around her and didn't know what to think. She wrote, "I don't know what Socialism is, all I know is that I'm poor and I need health care." So I wrote her a letter that, in the end, I thought worth sharing.
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Full disclosure so you know where I'm coming from up front: I support the passage of massive health care overhaul in the US. I also believe that the spirit, if not the word, of Democratic health care reform is necessary for America to remain a global economic and social leader. That said, let's talk about socialism
Socialism, in plain terms, is a system where the people - or the government - own or manage certain industries for the overall good of the community. It is a system that relies on the belief that a group of people owe it to each other to help out with certain basic functions. Fire departments in America are a great example of socialism. We all pitch in our tax dollars to maintain equipment and staff for the good of the community if something catches on fire. Other examples of functioning socialism are Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, subsidized housing and even Pell grants for college,
Why do Americans seem to hate socialism so much? Well, mostly because we have been told socialism is bad by the people on TV, but other than that it's mostly because of the good ol' Soviet Union. The Soviet Union, or USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) butted heads with the US after World War 2 and we became bitter enemies through the Cold War. We competed at everything and hated one another without cause or exception. The worst thing someone could call you in 1940's-50's America was a Communist. Why? Because it's bad to want to share? No. Because our "enemies" are communists and our "enemies" are bad.
But here's the thing most people aren't aware of. While the USSR called itself Socialist, it actually wasn't. Basically, its leaders took all the money, all the food, and all the goods for themselves and left the common people to suffer and called it socialism. So what Americans over the age of 35 think of when they think "socialism" is the horrible state of affairs in the old USSR. Russians worked their fingers to the bone and were still unable to buy bread for their families. It wasn't because socialism failed. It was because the government stole all the riches from the people and called it socialism.
Why else might Americans hate socialism? Because it is good in our society to work hard and succeed on your own. We are taught that to be a good man you must work hard for yourself. If you work harder than your neighbor then you are a better man than your neighbor. If someone works less or not at all, his value is less or he has none at all. This is an idea that is fairly young... made popular within the past 70 years, somewhere between World Wars 1 and 2. What this means is that America has learned to despise anyone who needs help. Think about that for a second. People look down on anyone who can't afford food, needs unemployment assistance or accepts help. We believe deep down inside our national conscious that anyone who works hard will get money and anyone who doesn't have money must be lazy. We also believe that when we deserve things. We have been taught through ingenious advertising campaigns that hard work = deserved rewards. So since socialism relies on the idea that we should all pitch in and help out, it goes against the idea of "deserved rewards." Many people feel that they worked hard for their money and they don't have to give it to anything or anyone because they earned it. Capitalism is about "I" while socialism is about "we".
Ok, enough about socialism for now. Let's talk about the current state of health care in America. Compared to the rest of the world, America's health care system is the highest in cost, first in responsiveness, 37th in overall performance, and Americans are 72nd by overall level of health and 34th in terms of life expectancy. re-read those numbers real quick. 1st in high cost... 37th in performance... and the people who rely on the most expensive health care system in the world are ranked 72nd in overall health. According to the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences, The United States is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not ensure that all citizens have coverage. Without adequate coverage, not only are we preventing Americans from being healthy, we are also threatening their economic well-being. Medical problems contributed to almost two-thirds of bankruptcies in 2007. If a person has no health care and gets sick, they can lose their job. If they lose their job, many Americans would have no health coverage.
This is what Obama is trying to fix. He sees that we are nearing the lowest standards in regards to health care. Sure, we have fantastic facilities and we have many of the best doctors in the world, but too many Americans cannot afford to use them. He wants, more than anything, for every American to have the right to health care. That is what "Canadian style socialized medicine" is. Every person in Canada has the right to health care. I am not even a Canadian citizen and I have the right to health care. I've been to the doctor from things ranging from a checkup to a fractured spine and I've never paid a dime more than my $50 monthly premium. Even when I had to have x-rays, a CT scan and an MRI.
Now let's talk about how politics plays into the health care debate. Certain groups stand to lose a great deal of popular influence and support if this change takes effect. Those same groups are largely funded by drug companies and private (for-profit) health insurers who are, themselves, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to fight health care reform. If Obama is successful in achieving something so monumental for average working Americans, then he will be hugely popular and may get elected again. If not him, then another Democrat because Democrats will be seen as the party that fixed health care and the economy. Republicans, particularly, do not want this and have gone openly on the record since day one of Obama's presidency saying they will do whatever it takes to stop Obama from doing anything at all. Period. If they stop him, they win. These are Republican words... not liberal bloggers. They have to stop him from reforming health care if they want to get a president in the White House next term. They must stop him so they refuse to agree to anything. The entire time Obama has been president, Republicans have refused to vote yes on a single thing. They won't even compromise. Their compromise is "Do it exactly our way or we will vote no on yours," and when they are met halfway instead, they say "no" because everything they want wasn't included.
But if all of that is happening in Washington DC, why are people on the street so angry about the health care debate? Republicans have used Fox News largely as their platform for instigating the most problems. Fox News is finally being called out as a propoganda channel by more and more reputable news sources. Fox speaks hatred and anti-government sentiment in order to cause an uprising against the president and get ratings. Why? Because they must stop him at all costs. So they have begun speaking to the people who aren't sure of what's happening in Washington DC and have filled their heads with lies and fear. They lie about the current state of affairs (ever heard someone say that America has the best health care in the world? Lie.) and they lie about what may happen if we change things (ever heard someone say that Obama wants "death panels"? Lie) in order to make people think their government is out to get them. Then they mis-quote our founding fathers and use parts of their words out of context to make it seem like it is patriotic to rise up and rebel against your government when they don't do what you want (remember when it was unpatriotic to question the leader?). This is where the Palin followers are coming from. This is where the Tea Party comes from. This is where the rise in militia activity comes from. This is where the national rise in gun sales over the past year have come from. This is where the angry Americans are coming from.
Make no mistake, this is not a cut and dry issue. There are many complexities and there are many groups playing. But you are the victim of people within our own government who are deliberately sowing lies and misinformation in order to make you afraid, to alter your perception of events and to influence your actions. They are instilling fear of change in you so they can maintain the status quo. Were it not for the lies and misinformation, there would be no widespread panic. Were it not for widespread panic, Republicans would be irrelevant right now. Republicans don't want that so they make Americans afraid in order to keep intelligent, reasonable debate from happening.
I hope this helps clear a few things up. Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions or want sources for any of my information. I'm open to talking about this stuff anytime.
In the meantime, here are a couple of trustworthy places where you can read up on the debate for yourself.
www.factcheck.org
Wikipedia page on health care in the US
Cheers
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