LogFAQs > #905969410

DuneMan posted...

Are there any pure communists about though? Pure communism is total failure. It usually results in stagnation and starvation. Pure capitalism led to the Gilded Age, and eventually that house of cards collapses on itself. Most Western governments in the world today aim for what one call Socially Responsible Capitalism. Essentially that the profit motive should be overridden in specific areas, e.g. healthcare, and that income disparity between the top and bottom of society should be capped.

1) I'm not sure what you mean by "pure communism" but there are certainly communists on CE.

2) Income disparity is a useless metric for a multitude of reasons. What matters is whether or not the people in the bottom stay in the bottom (the vast majority of the people in the bottom 25% don't remain there), whether or not the bottom share of the wealth grows over time (it does), and whether or not the people at the top are a static group of rich people (they are not).

3) Profit in healthcare is a sensitive subject for me, especially since I can see how it can prompt unethical doctors to prescribe unnecessary treatments. But I think if we look at the evidence we'll see that it's not so black and white.

The NHS in the UK is not profit-driven, yet they have a catastrophic problem with pointless surgeries/treatments, for example.

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/nhs-spending-2bn-on-useless-or-harmful-treatments-doctors-warn-a7377966.html

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jun/29/nhs-wields-the-axe-on-17-unnecessary-procedures

And for all of that bullshit, UK taxpayers can look forward to constantly-increasing taxes!

The news comes as the government prepares to raise taxes and ditch an increase to the personal income tax allowance to pay for NHS funding plans. According to proposals, 20.5bn of extra funding would be set aside for the health service by 2023.

In a speech at the Royal Free hospital in London a fortnight ago, Theresa May said tax rises were inevitable.

As a country, taxpayers will need to contribute a bit more, she said. But we will do that in a fair and balanced way. And we want to listen to people about how we do that, and the chancellor will bring forward the full set of proposals before the spending review.