Originally Posted by Guest

A quick study of basic economics will reveal that in a society such as ours, capitalism works best for most things. But, there are some things the need to be run on a socialist basis. Police and fire for example. I don't know that there is anything more socialist than the military. In fact I think that problems have been created when the military began to become less self sufficient and capitalist companies were hirer to perform certain functions. But that's another discussion entirely.

Although it was fought as a horrible socialist program, I think that social security has worked out pretty well. of course it, and it's sister program, Medicare would work a lot better if our politicians would stop "borrowing" from them. But again, another discussion.

I don't think that the argument should be socialism or capitalism as both need to exist in this country. The question needs to be where to apply each of these economic models.

Certainly the things I mentioned, police, fire, military have to be paid for and serve all of us. Do we want to extend to health care? Should we share equally in the food supply? Should we pool all of our money and have the government provide housing for all of us. That's what socialism truly is. It is a system where everyone contributes and shares equally.

It's pretty apparent that countries where socialism and communism were the norm are adding more and more capitalism into the mix and becoming better off because of it. China and Russia are the two most obvious examples. An example of a country that has tried to be strictly socialist is Cuba. Obviously that system doesn't work if it is the only way.

We have always had and will always need a mix of capitalism and socialism. The debate is over how much of each should be in the mix. What should the government do for us and what should be left to private industry?