Is NeoLiberalism a form of Socialism? Many people now are equating these two, let's say theories and saying they are very similar. But are they? Now socialism is as far as I can figure a society were the state has a lot of power and were all social needs are met by the state, by this I mean education, health, services like garbage collection, water supply, electricity some forms of public transportation, telecommunications, and because of this we have a huge bloated government and a huge tax load.
Neo-liberalism on the other hand believes in a small government, no public ownership, very low or if it were possible no taxation, the near elimination of union leadership laws that make them partly illegal,laws that make it legal for foreigners to own property, and of course a lot of others.
Many people who definitely don't like socialism have pointed out its many liabilities and if I point out, hey in Scandinavia it seems it is OK they say no what they have there is a welfare state not socialism. China has gotten rich and is socialist, again no it is in reality a capitalist state masquerading as a socialist entity. Better said socialism never is a success and if it is it is only because it isn't socialist. This is not much of an argument.
Then I can ask about neoliberalism, which if you actually look at it is in fact an ultra capitalists wet dream, you know low taxes, no government to hold you back as it embraces free markets, the laws are set so you don't risk your capital in a non secure country, but since neoliberalism didn't work it turns out it didn't work because in reality it is socialism.
Now this is just dumb, neither one of these two systems work but they have had their successes in fact socialism more than neoliberalism, and don't be mistaken neoliberalism is capitalism only thing it is corporate capitalism.
Of course as I have never lived in a socialist country I can not speak much about it, but come on at least let's admit that things like social security, public healthcare, public education should be considered socialism or does it hurt too much to admit it? But I do live in a country were neoliberalism was shoved down our throat, and it failed to work. We got the bad part of the bargain, the middle class shrunk, what were middle class people are now just poor, and let's not talk about those that were poor.
We now have a few people or groups owning most of the country and everything is controlled by monopolies, public companies were nationalized and now they charge so much for their services that we can't afford them, we have in the poorest country in Central America the richest people in Central America, protected natural areas are exploited in spite of the fact they are protected, and to top it off and prove how sarcastic this idea is the government just kept getting bigger and bigger which was the one thing we were assured couldn't happen with neoliberalism.
So, is socialism good or is capitalism good? I'd say neither one of them but as we can't have anarchy at least we should try to see what is good about all economic and political projects and try to apply them, because the way things are working now if you are a socialist you want to take from the rich and distribute to the poor which is kind of dumb, and if you are a neoliberal your main focus is to get the rich richer and wait for them to let their money trickle down, a dumb idea in my view.
No, we need smaller government, we need social welfare, we need public ownership of certain parts of the economy like electricity, railroads, garbage disposal, airports, ports. Because you see I am talking from experience you hand these over to private companies what happens is the services become so expensive few can afford them, and that is not my idea of how things should work.
On the other hand I do think people should be allowed freedom to get rich through their labor or their ideas, but they have to pay a fair part of taxes, more than what others pay, I mean a flat tax rate which is loved by the rich just means they get to pay an insignificant amount of taxes which is dumb. And I find it hard to believe that people who are stuck on a shitty salary actually think it is fair for the rich to pay low taxes. Think it through the very rich make their money off of what workers do for them which si OK they risk their money but if you don't tax them heavily what happens is what happened in Honduras, we now have at least two billionaires and many multimillionaires and these guys weren't close to being that before neoliberalism started, and where did they get their money from? Just think about the millions who didn't get it, that is where it should have gone but through corruption it was taken over by these vultures.
I guess with all the turmoil we are seeing in the world that most people are actually sick and tired of how their countries have been run by politicians and they desire change which is the one thing the status quo doesn't want. Now I have noticed that one of the things all political systems have in common is nice amounts of their budgets are spent on security, police and military. Now why would this be? Fear of a popular uprising? Probably, most of all fear of change, that is why most security forces are given every toy they want, all the bonuses they ask for etc. That is why the military backs Maduro in Venezuela and why it also backs Hernandez in Honduras, two guys whose political theories are miles apart but two guys who are smart enough to buy the military leaders.
You see the one thing I am sure I am not is conservative, change is the only constant in the universe change has to be embraced, because it inevitable, of course I guess the older I get the more conservative I will become which is why the US elections worry me, just a few very old men will probably be in contention for the most powerful job in the world. And old men are full of a lifelong collection of as they say here "resabios" stubbornness that just won't give up an inch.
I believe this is the longest article I have ever written, I guess I couldn't even express myself too clearly but I had to get that out, I am sometimes surprised at how sometimes we pick the wrong road because we lose site of the path. Sometimes I also have a problem with being a Spanish speaker I guess I make mistakes that make ky written words express not what I exactly meant.