Well Happy Earth Day. I have written something just about every “Earth Day” up until a few years ago, so I’m bring it back… with a vengeance. I think there was a time when we thought that the right forces would look at science and have rational conversations about saving the planet. It would seem that we no longer are in the mind set that we should try to save the planet, conserve natural resources or that clean water or air even matter.
Raping Mother Earth for all that she’s worth, after all, we’ll be dead and things won’t matter. This seems to be the mantra that many governments are choosing to follow. I do believe science, and the use of trends to predict the outcomes of things. Computers are getting better at modeling and while it isn’t perfect, the science is sound. We need to try reverse our footprint on the planet, and we can be more and more successful stewards of the planet.
The population of this planet will continue to grow and out grow our power consumption, and it will be interesting to see where we find the resources to feel 40 Billion people a day, in the not so distant future. We are lucky that technology will help, but it can’t solve all our problems, not if we want to continue to live in harmony on this big blue marble.
So with that, let me segue into my next topic which is Socialism. I am really tired of hearing people confuse communism and socialism. I’ve seen Meme’s out there that claim if the government controls this or that, then they will control the people. I find that this whole line of thinking is ridiculous. The USA is already filled with lots of socialistic ideology.
We have lots of government agencies that provide lots of handouts to small segments of the population, like farm subsidies, tax breaks for companies like Amazon (which is basically corporate welfare), and we could go on and on.
But what do we Americans get to take advantage of from the socialism that our tax dollars provide?
- Roads, like the Interstate Highway.
- The Post Office
- Libraries
- Schools
- The military
- Police
- Fire
- Publicly funded hospitals.
- OSHA (Safety)
I could go on and on, but you get my point. The foundations of societies are built on sharing resources because not one or even a few can pay for some huge undertakings. Healthcare is an excellent example of something that no person can afford to be without. We already have healthcare for seniors called Medicare. Guess what, we pay for it. It isn’t free, it is paid in advance by the recipients over their lifetime, just like social security. I don’t believe that when you take the deep dive look into these things that people will be asked to pay their fair share of, that it will be deemed a government handout. Socialism isn’t about stealing from the government coffers, it’s about ensuring a minimum standard of services available to a society.
We don’t have to go far to see plenty of western democracies that have much more radical social programs, England, France, Sweden, the UK and Canada all do a lot for their people. Minimum standards are great, then employers could supplement what the “Medicare for all” doesn’t cover.
It’s time we recognize the difference between communism and socialism, because our failure to do so will be the economic fall that is looming on the horizon.
Thank Goodness It’s Monday
I only know one person that says that. I’m generally dreading going back to work, but this is going to be a fast week. I have so much to do, and no time to get it all done, but in some way I know it will magically come together. I’m good at the crunch time. I can make the magic happen. So TGIM!