Health and caring

By Dan Paul Rose

With the American presidential campaign in full swing, I got to thinking about what the label “socialist” means, since for the first time that I recall, a formidable contender for the Democratic nomination, Bernie Sanders, is a self-described socialist. In South Korea, is it taboo to be coined a socialist? In America, very capitalistic by tradition, socialism sounds to many like the road to communism, and thus, the avenue to evil.

Socialism’s fundamental meaning is a theory or system of social organization that advocates the bestowing of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., to the community as a whole. This expressly discourages private ownership and enterprise for personal gain. I like to call it social sharing.

That being said, I find it interesting yet predictable that most of my capitalist-minded friends are wary of the government ― big or small, and they generally feel that private enterprise is equipped to handle the transactions of goods and services better than any governmental department or agency. My perspective is that if you don’t believe in representative government, fundamentally, then you have a cynical view of humanity. The government, any government, is comprised of ordinary citizens ― some, yes, who wield a great deal of power, but most are mere bureaucrats who put their pants on the same way you and I do.

America is a republic and we have representatives for the sole purpose of doing the jobs which you and I don’t have the time or expertise to perform. That’s the basic principle.

My favorite punchline to those who want to privatize every aspect of society is to ask them if they want to privatize the military, too. They often hesitate, then answer, No, of course not. This is an unequivocal example of where the federal government is absolutely paramount. And to think that private business without regulations in place will always travel the ethical path, has proven to be absurd. Look what happened in 2008 when a global bank like Lehman Brothers went bust because they took huge, unprecedented risks in the derivatives and real estate markets. Yet, because other mammoth banks Like JP Morgan Chase were too big to fail, they were bailed out by the government. Thank goodness the government was there, willing and able to come to the rescue of bankruptcy.

Americans have already privatized healthcare, and it’s become a convoluted industry - not efficient and everything short of cheap. For example, I recently purchased antibiotics in Bangkok, manufactured in Philadelphia, for the equivalent of $3. These very same 20 pills in a pharmacy in Seattle would cost at least fifty dollars. Why? Because in America, healthcare is a for-profit corporate industry. It’s a business, but defiantly not a right.

America provides two vital services to make it a functioning and stable democracy: military defense, which is tantamount to security; and free public education through high school. Why can’t we complete the trinity and include healthcare as a right? Wouldn’t it be a feather in our cap? I realize every society has its complaints concerning healthcare (for it can always be improved), but for a country as rich as America is, not to provide for the physical well-being of its citizens before it educates and protects them, seems ironic and backwards. It can afford it, I know for a fact.

Furthermore, do you think the complete takeover of public education by private concerns is wise? Good luck. However, millions of American citizens are pushing for it every day. That’s wrong. We must begin to realize, at least in principle, that citizens make up the government, and some things should not be for-profit. Profit is natural and motivating, but not when it comes to the essentials. Do we profit from the military? That’s impossible to calculate, but in terms of “making money,” no.

The goal shouldn't be to get rid of government, but that citizens should take government back ― into the hands of ordinary people, and out of the control of corporate America’s immense political influence.

That’s my take on socialism. It’s not the abolishment of free-enterprise, but it is the separation of business-for-profit from government run programs. Besides, the lessons from 2008 and the start of America’s recession is that free enterprise is not always so free. In this case, society’s ordinary citizens paid a hefty price for corporate failure. We all paid for their bailouts.

Let’s learn to trust each other, have faith in our political representatives, who on average are good stewards of the people, and ask them to provide us citizens with the missing foundation block for a flowering democracy: healthcare.

The writer is an English instructor at Yongin University. Write to danpaulrose@hotmail.com.