Dear Brock,

you are at it again I'm afraid.

You write;

“In reply to Individual. You forget that most people paid a few dollars a week for private health cover before Medicare.
Now taxpayers are paying through taxes and the Medicare levy much more than before towards Medicare and the army of government officials who administer the scheme.”

Rubbish I'm afraid. Insurance companies have been predatory since time immemorial. The insane hikes by them far outstripping inflation has been a feature in the Australian system, most predominately through the period when we started shelling out a 30% rebate for private insurance.

One of the ideas of bringing in a universal health system was to be able to get people away from having to deal with predatory, discriminatory and profiteering insurance companies. In the UK and the rest of Europe they managed to do just that with private insurance rates less that 4%.

Here the klaxons ring out with dismay and desperation if the rate drops to under 40% causing vast amounts of public money being shovelled toward rapacious insurance companies in the form of rebates and age discriminating hikes in premiums being legislated, just to stave off the touted imminent collapse of the system.

And we all buy into this idiotic narrative. Why?

"How about getting a bit more fair dinkum in your critique of socialism and let's have a proper debate."

I reckon I could take you up on that offer SteeleRedux, and win.
- If I could be bothered -

I believe that neither Socialism nor Capitalism are flawless systems and that the best way forward is a combination of both.

That said, my argument firstly is in support of socialist base level standards of Healthcare, Education, and even Employment - for all Australians;
- So that more people are able to take part in and gain the benefits of Capitalism.

Capitalism is a better system because it rewards skills and merit and a willingness to work and build something for yourself.
- And we can't go to the stars without a system that rewards merit.

Capitalism gives the freedom to 'choose your own adventure' and 'achieve your dreams' if you work at it;
- But you must accept the consequences of your own choices as well.

Socialism leads to Communism (Socialism at the barrel of a gun)
- And Communism leads to starvation and genocide.

There... done, no debate necessary.

I believe that neither Socialism nor Capitalism are flawless systems and that the best way forward is a combination of both.
Armchair Critic,
Because average people are flawed so no system will ever work !
How anyone can ever claim we're getting something for "free" from a Govt is beyond me.
The Govt gets everything for "free" from us taxpayers !

Dear AC,

Not going to unpack all that I'm afraid, you do seem to be all over the shop on this.

However perhaps we can frame it this way, socialism balances or humanises systems which would otherwise be entirely guided by the 'invisible hand of the market'.

Capitalism creates but also concentrates wealth. Socialism addresses the normal excesses of capitalism usually found in the excessively poor and the excessively wealthy.

A wise government attempts to get that balance right, to keep at bay those who would weaken the system through over the top advocates at either end.

The calls for massive tax cuts compete with calls for increases in welfare spending. Sometimes they are intertwined as in the case of franking credits or negatively geared properties.

How does that take sit with you?

Why must any act of welfare or social justice be attributed to Socialism? How about attributing them to other things such as a sense of humanity or Christian charity? Both have been around much longer. Where all the kindness and charity are desperately needed is in socialist regimes, yet socialists are in denial about the humanitarian horrors of the creed and seem to think that prosperous capitalist countries require the socialist remedy. No thank you, Steele.

Just read this in the Pacific Monthly of 16 July 1965 Editorial "Samoa News".

"They (the teenagers) might be right that they are receiving better education nowadays which is very good, and their parents are fooled by them, but as long as they don't know the meaning of the rule of law, and they don't have any respect for it, then the education they are receiving now is worthless".