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Politics : View from the Center and Left
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To: koan who wrote (191657)6/15/2012 11:57:47 PM
From: Bread Upon The Water  Read Replies (1) of 543690
 

B: <<One of the primary reasons Europe has a better social safety net, IMHO, is that they didn't have to put as much money percentage wise into defense as us as they rebuilt their economies after WWII because we were doing it for them (and necessarily so).

Now one could argue it is our turn to let Defense subsidize our fraying social safety net.>>

K: That doesn't explain Europe's cultural awareness. E.g. why are we the only western democracy that does not have universal health care, or affordable education (and we are the richest). Why do we have the largest jail population? Why are we the only ones left who have a death penalty?
It is not an apples to apples comparison. You are comparing us to nations between 1/5 and 1/10th our size that more or less are monocultures and of one ethnic background. In our vastness and our cultural and racial diversity (and background of strife therein), we are not of of one mind on how to approach things; hence, our alternative to civil war (having already tried that) is a mishmash of compromises. A little bit for everybody--and so we have the jumbled health care policy we have.

I'm not saying this is a good thing, but is a product of our diverse interests and system that has arisen from such--which necessarily is different than Europe's as we as a people are necessarily different. Saying we should be like the Europeans doesn't change the nature of who we are.

It might be best going forward if neither party here commands a clear majority in the November elections as then serious give and take can begin---as opposed to one party trying ram something down the other's political throat only to have it stick in their craw unaccepted and ready to be spit back out.
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