Anti-Capitalist Sentiment (with some morality)

[d0zer]

OK you're right. When the government coerces insurance companies into charging obscenely unprofitable rates to its customers, that's not communism yet, its socialism. When said insurance companies go bankrupt because of this and the government bails them out and owns them, then that will be communism.

Similarly when the government sets price controls on interest rates and the housing markets bubble and crash because of this, and the government is forced to bail out and outright buy Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it goes from socialism to communism again.

So yeah I guess it is hyperbolic but the point here is that it all starts with price controls. Or unreasonable regulations that in effect act as price controls. Socialism or communism, these are the root problems.

I feel like this is becoming too focused on obamacare, which may indeed be a mess, but the whole American health care system seems to be a bit of a mess to begin with. I was initially responding to your comment about western countries moving towards controlling economies with regards to healthcare or education.

Let's look at the Canadian health care system as an example of something often called "Socialist":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_...nada#Economics

Basically the government acts as an insurance provider for private doctors and funds independent hospitals. The insurance provider part would be considered socialist, but so would the American military. Doctors are still free to purchase supplies from private medical suppliers, Patients are still free to choose their doctors. All of that is under free market capitalism so when you say "The government controls 35% of the economy", including health care, you make it sounds like they're controlling every aspect of Healthcare, when they're not. It's a mixed system that has aspects of socialism and aspects of capitalism. Competition is still allowed to thrive, albeit in a more limited way than it was in America, as the government has replaced insurance providers. But was the American free-market alternative, HMOs pre-obamacare really a shining example of capitalism?

[Renton]

[video=youtube;ON5SxrCjbCU]All of that is under free market capitalism so when you say "The government controls 35% of the economy", including health care, you make it sounds like they're controlling every aspect of Healthcare, when they're not. It's a mixed system that has aspects of socialism and aspects of capitalism. Competition is still allowed to thrive, albeit in a more limited way than it was in America, as the government has replaced insurance providers. But was the American free-market alternative, HMOs pre-obamacare really a shining example of capitalism?

The American and Canadian governments both spend almost 45% as much as their GDPs. Not in capitalistic ways, more like in ways I described in my FAA anecdote. The US federal (30) and state (10) governments own over 40% of all the land in the U.S. including as much as 95% in western states like Nevada. In light of these facts how is it hyperbolic to state that that countries like the U.S. and Canada control over 1/3 of their economies? I think it's an understatement. They spend over 1/3 of it based on the whims of a congress that anyone on either side of the aisle would admit is as corrupt and incompetent as any congress in American history. And this isn't even to mention all the absurd and destructive price controls they impose on on all aspects of the economy.