talkpolitics | Divided by a common language? A Euro look at politics.

The Americans call it a sidewalk - to us , it is pavement.
In England, women use garters to hold up their stockings - in America , men use ' garters ' to hold up their trousers. Well, we call them 'braces' - but we call an Eraser 'a rubber'. Yeah , it is complicated trying to talk to Americans , even if you speak English.

But in Politics, it gets worse.

England has a Queen . She is not elected, so we are not a Republic.
Oh yes you are, say some Americans. You don't vote yourself on issues, you vote for an elected rep who votes on issues on your behalf - so you are not a Real Democracy.(TM)

Er, we are not an Athenian ( or Direct) Democracy, we are a Representational Democracy.

No you're not - are a Republic.
Now we are not, republics don't have any monarchs, we are a Constitutional Monarchy because we have a Queen...

And so it goes on.

To some , Socialism is about workers owning the means of production, to me it's about having publicly run services inside a mixed Economy.

Er, no Minto, that is Social Democracy.

Ok, you call it what you will, but this is how we do things in Europe, and Ii will tell you why it works for us and ask you maybe if you want to try it.

Lets call it a Mixed Economy. The Government runs some things , but private Enterprise runs others.
And it's not like they all get drawn out of a hat, or get given out like apples , one for me , one for you.
The work is shared out largely on the basis of what I would call 'a natural monopoly' it works like this in the UK...

London is a big city, and people want letters and parcels delivered, sometimes at short notice.
Now, you can put a parcel in the post , or you can pay DHL or some other company to deliver it for you- there is no natural monopoly on owning a van. anyone can buy one and run a delivery service.

Now, what about a sewage system? see , there is already a sewage system in place. Why should I disconnect my house from the existing system and join the one you want to build, that is simply duplicating the effort?
you see why I consider sewage treatment a suitable case for public and not private ownership?

Yes , if someone runs a really bad delivery service that is late and loses things , then there ought to be an alternative and there can be one. competition in business makes for efficiency, I think.
But do we need 3 or more different sewage systems competing in London , or a few different air forces to defend us from attack? I don't think so. get one , staff it with service minded professionals and we will all be ok.

Only if we get to the point where a government service is not delivering the results we want should we consider sacking and replacing people in that service. Anmd if that don't work - go for private tender.

Some forms of business can be run side by side.in the UK, everyone gets Public Healthcare and Publicly Funded Education. now, if you want something better than what the State is offering , I am happy for there to be a choice- after all, if you go private for a hip replacement , say, well you shorten the queue for those that can't afford anything but State Care. If you send your kids to Eton, you free up space in the local State School. so long as there is some form of provision for everyone, I don't mind.

What I don't get is why Americans seem to object to this. I mean , Obama did not install Universal Health Care, he simply widened the net to include more people.
Arrgh! He is a Soshulist! He's a Commie!
Er, not really. socialist, to some extent, but socialism and communism are not identical. Not to europeans.
I can get that people like to do things for themselves, and not have other people tell them that they can't let their kids sell lemonade in their front yards.

hey, they are kids, not some multi million dollar corporation, just let 'em be - that is my take.
but if you are going to be employing other people and taking in serious money, buying up property all over town and such - well, let's talk about planning permission , building regulations , fire escapes and pollution controls.

Otherwise, you end up with a problem like the one BP caused.

See, people in Europe, at one time, thought that you needed to have the Government actually own the plant to make sure that the workers got treated fairly. And we wondered why the italians and the germans could make decent cars and we couldn't.

then we got it sorted out - we sold off British Leyland to a private investor and told them "You make the cars and we will make the rules". And it does seem to work better that way. So, that is the basis of the Mixed Economy. the goverment regulates the market in the interests of the consumer, and so long as the manufacturers and the entreprenuers follow the same rules, nobody gives them any bother.

The State pays for roads, and other infrastructure, workers supply time and skills, and the business people take all this and turn it into money. I mean , how do you improve on that?

But that's my take on a Mixed Economy and how it ought to be run . What's yours?