Is Socialism Better Than Private Enterprise?
You say that socialism means “sharing the burdens”. I am not sure what you mean by this, but if you mean offering more government programs and services at taxpayer expense, I guess that is where we should begin. BUT is the government really the best entity to offer these services? Do they offer the best quality services? I think NOT. Take the example of public education which is offered by the local and state government in America and by the national government in Paris, France for instance.
That is a good beginning point because it is a common service that we all share whether in America, Britain, or France. I have an MED in English Education which means master’s in English Education at the high school level. My mother was also a high school teacher. I did student teaching and even had a job teaching English for awhile. I came to the conclusion that no matter what they did, public education was always going to be second best. I went to a public grade school and high school. I didn’t learn very much there other than what I taught myself. But when I went to college, which was a private school, I learned much more. But public education remains because it is better than nothing, though it is a shocking burden at the local level because of local property taxes which support the schools.
The previous occupant of the White House was trying to expand the federal government’s reach into health care. All he succeeded in doing was to make it difficult to impossible for real people to buy health insurance plans. He made it so that you can’t even get a doctor to call you back on the phone since there is now a doctor shortage for no good reason except that he made it hard for doctors to have private practices anymore. Health care became second rate. Hopefully Trump’s tax bill which also included a provision to kill the mandate has started to change things.
Not that the government can’t do anything in regard to services. It would be hard to see how public highways could be private. it would be hard to see how the military could be private. However as a footnote, when armies WERE private back during the days of the late Roman Republic you had legendary and famous armies as well as the most famous general in history, Julius Caesar.
Cheops Books LLC publishes various Roman novels such as Livia: A Novel, Caesar and Cleopatra: A Novel, Caesar’s Lost Legions, Pliny: A Novel, and Julia: A Romance.
