Originally posted by Darth Jello
That's what social democracy is. The protections of socialism for all individuals, the freedoms of a regulated, capitalist market economy, strong labor unions, and the nationalization of only those industries that cannot efficiently work as for-profit corporations without significant government assistance or horrible neglect of its customers (healthcare, banking, airlines, railroads, utilities, internet, etc.).
well, fine, I'm not a social democrat though. I don't see the state giving itself the power to run people's lives a good thing, even if they are doing it for benevolent reasons
an example would be like: the issue of whether health care should be state run or private is a red herring. Either way, what we need is affordable and accessible health care that serves the needs of the citizens. In the modern American model, sure, some degree of state regulation is probably needed to make the system work, but there is no reason why state control is necessary if the economy allows for affordable health care (it isn't prohibitively expensive and people's wages are enough to cover the expenses), and in fact, I'd argue that it is undesirable in an ideal system
Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
Job creation isn't the issue. As the article points out jobs are being created in the US, companies are turning huge profits, the economy is actually very strong. It essentially just workers that are getting screwed.
ah, fair enough. My point is that investment in certain manufacturing sectors (among others) is likely to increase the number of good paying jobs
Originally posted by skekUng
you can't really have a conversation with an American about social democracy. Most Americans are too busy flipping out over socialism to A) know what it means or implies & B) how much of what goes on here in the US is already socialism.
I'm not sure if I would call it "socialism" so much as "corruption", as there is little to no social value to corporate/government collusion