Ever since the beginning of the cold war, we have cultivated an irrational fear of socialism that defies all logic while at the same time maintaining some socialism deeply ingrained in our society. It’s as though we can choose the socialism we like as long as we never acknowledge that it is socialism. In the eyes of most Americans, socialism is not just un-American—it is the anti-America. A truly balanced view would recognize that there are probably some aspects of our society that are privately controlled that would benefit from socialism, and, conversely, there are some aspects of society that are socialized that should be privatized.

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Evil socialism

Defense- What if society as a whole were asked to be responsible for providing everyone that wanted it a shiny new set of golf clubs? It would also provide a new set every time those ran out. Would you be outraged? There’s a small chance that the golfers out there might not mind… even some of them probably do mind. What does this have to do with defense? That starts with a deeper question.

The argument for socialized military is that, were we ever attacked, we would need to have defense provided for us by the government. Great. However, I would think we could build that defense on a much smaller budget. How is our military actually used? Let’s look at the attack on Iraq. Iraq: a country with no WMDs and no ties to 9/11. That takes care of the justification we originally had for going. This is how this attack was justified as a social service. We are threatened by this entity. We have linked them to something everyone is scared of right now. We need to go in and stop them. Of course, we now know that these justifications were contrived (or, at best, derived from bad intelligence). What were the true motives for an attack on oil-rich Iraq? This pattern of fighting for the economic interests of American corporations is not new. It has been repeated throughout history. There are always injustices taking place. Just look at Darfur. We have labelled it “genocide” but have not intervened on the behalf of those people. If we were looking for places that needed help in 2003, Iraq was certainly not at the top of the list. America tends to find a way to muster the most outrage in places where our economic interests are at stake. Let’s go back to socialized golf equipment. Most would agree that you should pay for your own golf clubs if you want them. Why? Because not everyone needs them so not everyone should pay for them. What if we have a defense budget that is sold as a service to everyone but used disproportionately by our richest corporations?

I would propose privatized defense in which people could contribute to a national defense fund or even hire a party of their own choosing to defend on their behalf. If we have such faith in the fantastic free market, wouldn’t we want to let that market dictate our defense budget too? Many people have problems with insuring the survival of poor people on welfare who they perceive as lazy. I have a much bigger problem with paying taxes to kill hundreds of thousands of people just becase they happen to live in the same region as people who don’t care for America. This is why 2,500 people died on 9/11—a group of leaders who didn’t mind writing off lives as collateral damage in order to make a point. I’m sure we have taught them a lesson they will never forget what with us validating their methods by using them against nearly 100,000 of their own civilians.

Corporate welfare- Let’s everyone get pissed off about having to make sure the poor have their basic needs met such that they may survive while also applauding tax breaks to corporations, tax cuts for the rich, and the recent $700 billion dollar bailout that is paying for retreats and hunting trips for AIG and fucking bonuses for corporate executives. I can’t imagine the outrage if Congress had said we needed $700 for a humanitarian emergency. People starve all the time. That much money would go quite far to help them. Instead, we waste it on people who are nowhere near the point of starvation. In fact, most of these people have lived a far more decadent lifestyle than 98% of the planet for years now. Now, they have begun to ask for more. And, yes, I know the argument that the entire economy will collapse if we don’t bail out Wall Street. So, how long are the taxpayers expected to prop up this house of cards?

Some infrastructure- I can concede that running water and sewer systems provide either direct or indirect benefit to near everyone, but what about the massive sums that are spent on maintaining the infrastructure to support travel by car? In this economic climate, there are growing numbers of people who either don’t use these services altogether or use them in a much more limited capacity to, say, your average Hummer driver. I do not believe that road building and maintenance should be relegated entirely to the private sector, but It does seem more logical that these things should be paid for exclusively by taxes collected in actions directly related to use of the roads. Tax bus fares, cab fares, fuel purchases, and car purchases and tax them sufficiently that no other sources of funds are necessary. Property taxes and sales taxes on non-automotive items should never be diverted to any road maintenance tasks.

Good socialism

Health care- Lots of countries do it very successfully. Sure, there are horror stories. We have our fair share. Unfortunately, in this country, you don’t get to qualify as a horror story unless you are paying for health coverage whether on your own or through your company. What about the millions who cannot afford coverage who are having to suffer without treatment. Well, they can’t be angry about our system because the system requires that you buy coverage. Why is that not reason enough for outrage? I personally have insurance and have had numerous issues with my coverage in spite of the fact that I am in excellent health. I have never had any surgery, chronic problems, or any really expensive healthcare for my insurer to cover. It always feels as though the insurance company is just looking for any reason not to cover me in spite of the fact that they have no qualms whatsoever taking my money in the meantime.

Socialized retirement (social security)- No one should have to work his entire life. Why not guarantee retirement? Why should retirement savings hinge on the whims of the market? Long-term returns on the stock market are pretty solid, but what does that mean for people who were planning to retire about now? Chances are, they don’t really want to wait another five or more years for this mess to straighten back out. I know if it were me ready to retire, I’m not going to want to wait another six months!

Education- There is certainly a place for private education. I know that, if creationism takes the reigns from evolution as the choice origin of life story in public schools, I will be sending my child to a private school. I know there are as many and probably more who would state the exact opposite. The value of a free-for-all educational system cannot be disputed. We have enough socio-economic inequality as it is. This is a rather significant way our society attempts to level the playing field. It is certainly flawed in more ways than can be counted, but the solution is without a doubt reform rather than abolition.

Socialism that is rarely—if ever—questioned

• fire protection
• police protection
• trash pickup
• city water
• city sewer
• recycling

Conclusion

So, what does all this tell us? As with almost anything else, socialism is not black or white. It doesn’t fit squarely into the Star Wars good versus evil view of the world that has been popularly propagated by fear mongers. Some services make sense socialized. Others are better purchased on an individual basis. Many aspects of our society that are wholly American are socialism on a small scale. We should be aware that this idea of services provided through taxpayer money is not wholly evil while other forms of socialism we have already adopted but not framed as such may go too far.