THRIVE

In debates I’ve come across involving socialism vs. capitalism there are three things that hit me that don’t seem to hit my opposers so I want to share them with you regardless of which intellectual position you may take:

1. Marx’s prediction of what would happen to capitalism DID NOT HAPPEN - the working class in the US did not get poorer as capitalism-based countries grew larger and became more advanced and they did not form a revolution as Marx and Engels said they would.  On the contrary, as democratic capitalism grew strong, many important aspects of socialism found their way into the US political sphere such as social security, labor unions, welfare, housing, etc.
2. Socialism was actually not “successful” in countries until the country privatized much of their commerce and industry including their health care systems which are found to be unsustainable as healthy folks grow older and require more and more care and medication as they live longer.  Once you take the privatization route, you open your country up to the general tax rules that apply to capitalistic nations such as the idea of a “tax roof” - the optimum tax rate which produces the most possible revenue.  If you increase the tax rate from this percentage, you will receive the same revenue because business decreases.  If you decrease the tax rate from this percentage, you receive less revenue because business stays the same and taxes decrease.  This is economics, not politics, not philosophy.
3. The tax rates in countries with successful universal health care systems are absolutely ridiculous.  Employees in these countries can expect to keep around 45% of their wages or salaries (Sweden, whose political system is considered the model socialistic system of our day) and yet their unemployment rates typically mirror the rates in the US.  Also, they focus most of their efforts and cash on the people and less on national defense and research and development and often their success can be attributed to being able to “piggy-back” on capitalistic nations like the US that have HUGE research and development sectors.

There are many more points I could bring up but Marx predicted capitalism would degenerate into socialism eventually.  Unfortunately, there are many intellectuals who believe socialism eventually degenerates into communism as the government at some point decides that dissent and democracy are hindering the growth of the country.  This is why the study of history will always be a worthwhile discipline. 

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