How Much More?

By Staff Writer Caleb T. Maupin
From the Latest Issue of Maelstrom

Our conservative classmates love the free market. They think that government intervention in the economy is “socialism.” They think programs like government provided healthcare, education, and income are “un-American.” They think the free market, and the domination of society by private interests rather than collective ones is positive. If this is the case, they should be the happiest people in the country.

In the U.S., there is no “right to healthcare.” People are known to go bankrupt because of medical bills. There is no right to housing, and there are millions of homeless people in this country, many of them veterans. Environmental legislation is weak, and the Kyoto protocol is yet to be signed. We don’t have “crazy government regulations” requiring employers to give workers paid vacations. In many states, public education, a “government program,” is being destroyed, and being replaced by “charter schools” and “voucher programs” which send children to religiously run institutions. In New Orleans, the government didn’t even do a bleeding heart liberal thing, and give the citizens a ride out of the city. Yes, the government “stayed out of our business” and left thousands on their rooftops to die.

So, why are Libertarians angry? What more do they want? What more could they possibly be demanding? Compared to the rest of the industrialized world, the U.S. is the most free market of any of the countries.

So, if naked free market capitalism is so great, and profit run chaos gets things done, let’s look at this society. Let’s use the CIA world fact book.

Well, children in the horrible socialist “national hospitals” of Great Britain are way more likely to survive at birth, and after receiving that horrible socialist medical care all their lives, British citizens are living .7 years longer than U.S. citizens. The rate of HIV/AIDS infection is one third of what it is in this country, despite the fact that British children don’t have the privilege of attending state-funded religious schools that don’t education about condoms.

The French are living two years longer than U.S. citizens, have a lower infant mortality rate, and a third less percentage of HIV/AIDs infection.

In terms of basic societal health, the horrible “socialist” nations of Europe are doing much better. But, the conservative/libertarians of this country don’t get it. You see, their problem is that we just don’t have enough of the free market. We have too much social security. We have too much healthcare provided, not to little. We have too much funding for public schools.

Well, the free market fundamentalist experiment called the United States has cost us a 12% poverty rate, a five percent unemployment rate, evictions, lack of healthcare, and millions with student loans for the rest of their lives simply because they want an education.

“But it’s just not enough!” Ron Paul tells me. I’m sorry, but lovers of capitalism, the cards are stacked, the game is over, and everyone but the super rich has lost. Time to stop playing the game!

REPRINTED WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE MAELSTROM STAFF