Saturday, August 8, 2020

Social Conscience vs Socialism

 The main thing Americans are interested in is domestic policy.  Yes there is some concern about international policy but unless we are in the midst of a war it is a secondary concern.

What is happening there is not very good.  We of course have the Pandemic which did disrupt the economy.  Was the economy great before that?  Well the administration claims it was but we still had the millions of underemployed Americans struggling to make ends meet.  

There has been a long term issue in this country where workers have seen their relative incomes decline as the rest of the world competes.  This started in the 1970s as our post World dominance faded to competitive forces initially frm Japan, then Europe and ultimately to China and other thrird world countries.

Labor here, especially unskilled labor, was overpriced.  This made products made in America that used unskilled labor non-competitive.  

This is an economic trend that was pretty much inevitable and the trade deals that were made were not the cause, they were the result.  Did they possibly speed up the process a bit?  Maybe but economics is a cruel master and if you can't compete on price and quality you are doomed.

We can and do compete on skilled labor and as we replace unskilled labor with automation we can see the economy boom but rewards are unequal.  

In a society like ours the only way to equalize capitalism is to remove elements of compensation from the equation.  Health Care, Education and Old Age Pensions should be State Provided as they are in most modern economies.  If you are being forced to work a minimum wage job, and our minimum wage is actually less than the minimum needed to survive, you still should get health care and your children should get educated.

You may want to call this socialism but it more of a social conscience.  

Is everyone entitled to a fair deal or not?  Politicians promise this all the time.  We need them to deliver.


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