Social Democracy

” Now, as I look at my opponent’s profile, I see he is in support of Socialism and against Capitalism, which is a stance farther to the left than my own. I still welcome him to debate against me, and in fact, the best debaters are often those that could, if they tried, argue the other side. I wish him luck. I will organize my arguments in the following manner: First, I will start off with some statistics about successful social democracies, primarily in Europe, as well as Canada and Australia. I will start on an easy note and simply warm up to a main argument. Secondly, I will go in depth about the failures of Western Capitalism here in the United States. And thirdly, I will weave the first and second arguments into a case for implementing Social Democracy here. May I note that part of this argument is pasted from an essay I wrote for my English class a few months ago. ARGUMENTS Point One: Social Democracies Around the World First, let me list the ten happiest countries in the world according to Discovery News. Denmark (7.639) Norway (7.655) Switzerland (7.650) The Netherlands (7.512) Sweden (7.480) Canada (7.477) Finland (7.389) Austria (7.369) Iceland (7.355) Australia (7.350) Though economics plays a major role for these countries’ success and happiness, culture also plays a part in it. These nations are in many ways more collectivist than we are. They see it as “we” and not “I. ” Most, if not all, of the above nations can be classified as some form of Social Democracy. Now granted, where is the United States on this list: 17. United States (7.082) I do not require a source for this, but indeed it is common knowledge that we have the largest gross domestic product of any nation. Let me cite another debate of mine, in which I argued in favour of a Sanders presidency: . http://www.debate.org... I cited Canada’s success with single-payer healthcare, an element of Social Democracy. Point Two: The Failures of Western Capitalism “Capitalist market economies open to trade and financial flows may be the worst economic regime,” (Roubini). Many Conservatives ignore the fact that a lack of regulation and a lack of a social safety net will actually hurt people instead of help them. They also like to paint heartfelt Progressives as Marxist Socialists. “While this crisis does not imply the end of market-economy capitalism, it has shown the failure of a particular model of capitalism. Namely, the laissez-faire, unregulated (or aggressively deregulated), Wild West model of free market capitalism with lack of prudential regulation, supervision of financial markets and proper provision of public goods by governments. ” Any time laissez-faire has been attempted and governments strode towards it, chaos arose. “It is clear that the Anglo-Saxon model of supervision and regulation of the financial system has failed,” (Roubini). England has moved closer to laissez-faire in the nineteenth century, but no one, excluding enterprise owners, profited. “It relied on several factors: self-regulation that, in effect, meant no regulation; market discipline that does not exist when there is euphoria and irrational exuberance; and internal risk-management models that fail because, as a former chief executive of Citigroup put it, when the music is playing, you’ve got to stand up and dance. ” Yet, abolishing the classes would prove to be difficult, needless to say, also very unlikely to succeed. We are not Communists. That is why our approach must be directed towards the enterprises and the services public systems can provide, creating the environment where one can flourish, where liberty can thrive, and where Utopia can be fully realized. And in this world, we would see the gaps between the classes reduce to interstices, not massive, massive schisms and rifts stealing from hard-working people wealth, power, liberty. Now, the above, in many ways, is just an idealistic appeal to the progressive, grassroots base. But where do we draw lines, and what specifically will be the structures and functions of a people’s government, and what philosophy will we as a national society adhere to in regards to labour and entitlements and the like? Point Three: The Case for A New System in the United States I recently had a debate on single-payer. Let me simply link my arguments here: . http://www.debate.org... My arguments are in the second and last round. I was dealing with a troll there. Many proponents of pure Capitalism (and laissez-faire) forget that deregulation gives birth to financial crises and even worse poverty. It is sad to see most Republicans incapable or unwilling to acknowledge the issues they face and their severity, “[e]specially [George W. ] Bush, our CEO president, who lays the blame not on the failures of the marketplace but on past administrations and corporate greed” (Huffington). The marketplace. Small business. Corporations play a massive role in the destruction of our economies and our natural world, but small business must also be put in line and must also play by a set of rules. In his article Why Western Capitalism Has Failed Us, Ray Williams continues: “But we also know that transitioning to some kind of a new economy—and, probably, a new governing model to match—will be a civilization-wrenching process. We're having to reverse deep and ancient assumptions about how we allocate goods, labor, money, and power on a rapidly shrinking, endangered, complex, and ever more populated planet. We are boldly taking the global economy—and all 7 billion souls who depend on it—where no economy has ever gone before. ” BIBLIOGRAPHY "The Happiest Countries in the World : DNews. " DNews. Web. 23 Apr. 2016. <. http://news.discovery.com... > Roubini Nouriel. “Laissez-Faire Capitalism Has Failed. ” Forbes. Forbes. com. Web. 4 March. 2016. <. http://www.forbes.com...; Williams, Ray. "Why Western Capitalism Has Failed Us. " Psychology Today. PsychologyToday. com Web. 29 Feb. 2016. <. https://www.psychologytoday.com... >