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When you actually learn the ideals of socialism, specifically central planning, you realize that many American politicians aren't really all that against it. I'm not talking about Democrats only either. There are many institutions in American society that are highly socialist in how they are facilitated. Here are some examples.
What do I mean? Mainly I'm referring to central planning, and if you think about central planning being the far left of the spectrum, free markets would be the other extreme. The things I will list are far more to the left than we probably acknowledge.

Hospitals

While most hospitals are privately owned, most people are not aware of how centrally planned they have become in most states. In order for a hospital to be built, there is a process that has to be followed called a Certificate of Need (in most states). I first learned about this many years ago when I asked my father‑in‑law why there was only one hospital in our area. The hospital has a terrible reputation and record. Many people will drive over an hour and a half to avoid using it. Knowing this, I was perplexed about why another hospital hadn't popped up to compete with them. So how is a Certificate of Need obtained? Through a committee of mostly politicians—politicians who get campaign money from the existing medical providers. And this, this classic pattern we should all be aware of, is why we don't have true market competition for hospital care. I mean, imagine if we didn't have these impartial and educated arbiters of public need to decide how many hospitals we need in an area...

Utilities

Power companies, water companies, and sewer systems are almost always either completely centrally operated by cities or so heavily regulated that they are private in name only. At best, we have a government‑established monopoly. The government decides which company is given the right to operate, and no competition is even allowed. For the state, it’s a great solution. Think about PG&E in California. The public thinks of PG&E as a private company. But in reality, their pricing of power, their ability to build power generation, and their governance are almost completely dictated by the state. I honestly wonder if it wouldn't be better if the state just dissolved the company and ended this farce. At least then the public would point their fingers at the correct root problem: central planning.
In California—which isn't alone in this, by the way—the state restricts the building of new power generation. The state hasn't allowed a significant power generator to be built since 1985. The state uses far more power than it generates, and the power companies must import power from other states. Of course, this drives up the cost of power and is the main reason why power is more expensive in the Golden State. It doesn't have to be this way. Allow competition. Allow companies to come in and build new power generation that isn’t these solar science experiments. The vast majority of building that has been done in the state is for natural gas plants. They are basically required due to the spikes and valleys produced by grids dependent on solar.

Firefighters

The volunteer firefighter is becoming a thing of the past. Over the years, I've had several friends who used to do this. Firefighting started as a volunteer and privately run operation. It still is in some places, but this is exceedingly rare. One need only look at what happened in Southern California to see the consequences of centrally planned fire prevention and firefighting.

The Fed

The biggest example and most broadly influential is the Fed. The price of money (credit) is centrally planned and managed. It galls me every time I hear a conservative decry socialism and then defend the Fed.

Price Controls

Price controls are, on the surface, largely discredited. Even the average person will laugh if you suggest them in many situations. But the poisonous idea of central planning at the center of the rot of socialism is far too present in so‑called free nations. These ideas have not been destroyed. Until they are proven to be terrible, we will suffer the consequences. We see price controls in the form of rent control, insurance regulation in many states, and anti‑price‑gouging laws.

What Did I Miss?

I could go on and on about this. I could probably think of a dozen or more examples of central planning in our so‑called free nation. What is a big one I missed? What is a big one that bugs you?
Insurance is a big one. Who is covered and for what and at what rates are all heavily regulated. Plus, consumers are required to purchase this product.
Building construction has lots of central planning elements, through building codes and zoning.
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Healthcare world has basically zero price discovery because everything is paid through insurance, most of which people didn't proactively choose
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Certificates of Need are worse than that. My understanding is that they usually require approval from the existing hospitals.
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Microsoft getting to decide whether people need a new OS or not.
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I think that is correct. I wasn't 100% sure so I left that out but my memory is that my father in law tried to get another hospital into the area. He was on the city counsel at the time and he said the existing hospital operators and politicians blocked it every time it came up.
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Over the years I've learned most people...
  1. Don't really understand what socialism
  2. Think they oppose it
  3. Actually only have a problem with redistribution of money to things they don't like
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36 sats \ 1 reply \ @claos545 15h
Not a fan of socialism at all , I live in Cuba, I know what it looks like when central planning runs everything. You're right, a lot of what people call "capitalism" in the US is full of centralized control. Hospitals, utilities, the Fed, it's all gatekept. Feels more like managed scarcity than a free market.
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Indeed. In the US they fool the masses into believing they have real freedom and free markets. Starts not long after birth.
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46 sats \ 2 replies \ @Akg10s3 18h
This is a good take on this idea.
I come from a country that is currently still socialist, but very extreme! Which is bleeding the nation dry, if not already dead...
The United States, a country whose main emblem is capitalism, and a president who emphasizes his nationalism every chance he gets amidst so much garbage politics, applies socialist concepts, and for better or worse, they mostly work! I think politicians paint you a capitalist image to win the campaign, and then they let that idea go for a bit and dip their toes into socialism!
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Freedom, even in small doses makes a big impact. Look at China. The US could be so much more prosperous if we ditched socialism.
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I agree with you 👌
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39 sats \ 1 reply \ @Scoresby 18h

Airports

  • Imagine if somebody opened a TSA-free airport just outside a city.
  • The experience inside airport terminals sucks. Surely we could figure out how to sell a bottle of water for less than 500% markup.

Public restrooms (in the US at least)

  • why don't we have more pay-to-use public restrooms? I suspect it's a cultural thing (although it's also possible that it's just really hard to monetize well).

ISPs

  • There are two choices in my neighborhood. Seems surprising, considering everyone wants internet and is willing to pay for it.
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Great examples. ISPs are one most people are clueless about.
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Education, concessions, regulated professional activities and, in the case of the territory where I live, everything on and under the ground belongs to the government.
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2 sats \ 0 replies \ @siggy47 9h
I finally get the opportunity to feel good about my home region. Long Island has remained the land of the volunteer firefighter.
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You speak small thing about everything which seems good but if you would split to more threads and talk more specific it will be better.
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Go for it. I'll read them.
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21 sats \ 1 reply \ @anon 7h
One thing I couldn't get my head around is how the free market could solve e.g. safety standards. In my opinion, it's crucial to have standards to follow when implementing projects, especially in the public sector. For instance, if safety standards for train brakes are not maintained properly, a crash could occur, leading to fatalities. Similarly, in a laboratory, a virus could escape due to improper implementation of risk controls. I mean in certain areas, standards are required to ensure that individuals can operate together safely. This means that I usually don't get killed when going by train because it was more cost-efficient to eliminate safety standards in favor of performance features. Maybe I didn't use the best examples, but my take is that there are certain scenarios where central coordination is necessary, and I don't think the free market can solve everything entirely. Curious about stackers take. What do I miss?
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I think the traditional libertarian answer is that some combination of tort lawsuits, industry-agreed-upon standards, and privately run consumer information groups would be enough to keep the companies' behavior in check.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @sophos 58m
You are on the track, and it is not only American society.Socialism is in fact everywhere globally where there is "politics" and "government". Government is the tool socialism thrives from.
I just started to write a book about how the idea of Socialism is present at almost every level of our society and it continues to thrive on expanding governments, but not only that it is in the way of thinking, by distorting the once clear in language meanings into something else that protects it and causes conflict in society. Socialism is dangerous and evil idea, but it is also very dominating idea that is wielded mostly unconsciously - which makes it even more dangerous (think of people thinking good, but results end up powering this evil idea).
Socialists are possessed by the idea that they can promise something that collective (usually government will provide). Of course collective fails on that promise most of the time. What then for the solution? We lacked the resources, therefore we need more TAXES, more DEBT, more CONTROL - and this time it will be different!
Socialism as an idea infests not only government, but culture and language as well in order to protect itself. It distorts meanings. Let’s take economics for example: nowadays it almost certainly means Keynesian Economics which is not even backwards compatible with classical economics which reigned 250 years, but was of course discarded because politicians needed something to protect their actions in before great depression and afterwards as well. It changed totally the meaning of economics, and economics now is completely captured language and profession that serves these politicians. And this was just one example of the protective language and culture shell socialism has formed. There are many others, many taboos as well like: what if people and nations would generate more wealth and happiness with minimal government?
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Having extensive experience in infrastructure when things go bad it’s always convenient to blame central planning but America has countless utility systems and hospitals that operate extremely well and provide excellent service to their customers.
When planning large capital projects such has hospitals and utilities you best make sure the project is economically viable or tons of waste will resort.
I never see you Free market guys bash things the free market gets wrong and with that comes destroyed capital and opportunity.
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Really? You never see companies mocked? I do. And what we are referring to isn't just planning. It's monopoly state actions. Every company is centrally planned but they have competition and market incentives to push against them.
Of course there is a scale of good to bad utilities. The issue is that when the government controls and centrally plans a utility and it doesnt work the public has few options.
Personally I'd much rather see private investors risk their capital than see them rig the system in their favor. That is what we see over and over again.
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Socialism is like a Ponzi scheme. If you take money from one worker and give it to 8 lazy people, you lose 1 vote but gain 8.
"He's awaking ..."
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stackers have outlawed this. turn on wild west mode in your /settings to see outlawed content.