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I am to believe that Canada’s cradle-to-grave paternalist government, semi-socialist economy, and collectivist culture are far “nicer” and better than the “cut-throat” capitalist economy and meanly individualistic culture of the United States.

Those behind the Manifesto for a Socialist Canada are already well along the path to establishing a socialist government in Canada.





These are qualities of a police state, not of a socialist state, as socialism is primarily an economic policy. (However, socialist states often have features of police sttaes.) I won’t deny, however, that the U.S. has begun to succumb to socialism (Social Security, welfare, medicare, etc.). Many are pushing for socialist health care. Still, the U.S. does not have as many socialist policies as Canada.

Canadians by the hundreds of thousands have left Canada for the United States.



Yes.



I’m glad you asked. It’s not that the actual health care itself is so bad, although thousands of Canadians come to the U.S. for their health care rather than waiting for years for the government to provide it. There are two main objections I have to socialized health care.

The first is that giving government control over who gets health care, when, and where is not a good thing. Germans, for example, can be on a waiting list for years before receiving health care.

The second is that socialized health care kills progress in medicine. Currently, Canada subsidizes health care and puts price caps on drugs. Companies who research new drugs make no profit from their Canadian sales, so they’re forced to raise the prices in their American market to cover the cost of research and marketing. Since Americans are still bearing the burden of the cost of research, progress continues. However, if America were to adopt Canada’s policies, the American influx of new drugs would slowly dwindle to zero, as testing new drugs and having them approved by the FDA is a long and expensive process. If American drug companies cannot recoup the money that is spent researching drugs and medical treatments, progress will halt.

Slightly off-topic: the government should not be funding the arts, paying for scientific research that is not directly of national interest, or funding a space program except that which provides for national defense.



Agreed. Many of America’s security woes can be traced back to America’s own interventionist policies. Over the decades we have paid billions in funding to terrorist regimes. (The U.S. even offered money and training to Osama bin Laden’s group to help fend off the Russians during the Cold War.) Not only that, but our government seems to think that America is the global police force. While the places it decides to police (or in some case overthrow) are genuinely horrible places under horrible leaders, Americans cannot afford the burden.

If the Bush administration (and successive administrations) continues its policy of reckless deficit spending (both in the military and otherwise), we will soon see a depression that will make the Great Depression of the 1930s look like a minor economic slump. The government’s policy of inflating itself out of debt will ultimately cause the collapse of U.S. currency.

All government types are not socialism, although in practice most governments have socialist policies.

Socialism is an economic and political theory advocating government ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods and wealth. Socialists work for economic equality and look to the government as the solution of all their problems.

Paying taxes is not authorizing the government to redistribute wealth. The government’s spending money is not necessarily redistributing wealth, as there are some legitimate functions of government that must be paid for. Redistributing wealth is taking wealth from one class of citizens (e.g., the productive citizens) and giving it to another class of citizens (e.g., those who refuse to be productive).

The U.S. is continuing to adopt both more socialist and more police state policies, but it has not gotten so bad here that I would want to move to a socialist state like Canada (in which health care is completely socialized).

The military is a legitimate function of government inasmuch as it defends its citizens from foreign invaders.

This is a pretty dumb move on the part of the criminal when you consider that there are a limited number of places to rent/buy chicken suits in a given area. It makes it much easier to track the criminal.

[sarcasm]Yeah, there’s nothing like socialism.[/sarcasm]

Are you talking about the Blog layout or the forum layout? I don’t read your Blog, but I like the new forum graphics. (I’m using Internet Explorer and don’t seem to be having any problems.)