Sinivar
What an interesting idea for a thread!
Yay for broadening horizons and offering to teach others about your different viewpoints. Especially without being snappish about it like some folks tend to do in these kind of things.
I'd like learning more since, from what you've said so far, I'm liking the cut of your jib.
I guess I'll ask about what you brought up in your first post. (I'm a complete novice when it comes to politics, so I apologize in advance if I sound ignorant while asking questions.
sweatdrop )
So what do you feel are the various pro's are of a larger government and regulated market and what is the difference between a 'Social Democrat' and the run of the mill Democrat?
Thanks! I'm always happy to teach people about Social Democracy! ^_^
I find, that people in America just have some sort of fear towards "big government", they're hardly willing to trust it despite all the good it's done for them. I theorize that this is the result of the very... Patriotic education a lot of people are given about the revolutionary war. In fact, this hatred or fear of the big government is so large, that some people honestly seem to ignore
every good thing the government's done for them.
For example, when Obama was attempting to pass what's now known as "obamacare" there were people protesting with signs literally reading "Keep Government Out of My Medicare", which is like saying "Keep Meat Out of My
Hamburger".
Government, when passing bills to "appease" socialists ( a trend started by Otto von Bismark, who many consider to be the "founder" of germany ) has done a lot of good for the people. It passed the clean food and drug act which helped fix the
horrid conditions in American meat factories (we're talking things like rancid meat being sold as "fresh" and bugs crawling around the factory floor), it created minimum wage, a "retirement age", and all sorts of other things that make life livable.
But, I'm sure just pointing to good things government intervention has done isn't proof enough, is it? Well let me give you an example of Social Democracy in action.
The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland are all some of the more "socialist" countries in europe. Sweden's been referred to as the "haven for Social Democracy". Those countries are in the top ten for countries with the happiest citizens (with most of them in the top
five.) College there is completely free, healthcare is provided by the government and free, the gap between the rich and the rest of the country is small, and they enjoy great public transportation and use of green energy.
That country gets to enjoy free healthcare and education, it hasn't torn itself up in civil war, the people there aren't starving, and they're genuinely
happier and healthier then we are. Businesses are allowed to be created, and actually do quite well thanks to both smarter, more educated employees (plus government handled healthcare means they can worry a lot less about providing insurance to recruit people) and the fact they can't just throw money at the government and care about their business as little as possible. They have to honestly
compete to succeed. Consumers are educated as well, they wont fall prey to scams as easily as before, and they'll
know when someone is trying to play the system.