Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Freedom and Economics....
So Friedman argues that there cannot be democracy without capitalism. As a strong supporter of capitalism, is does my heart damage to have to disagree with a man who won a nobel peace prize for economics supporting such a glorious economic scheme. I suppose if he were talking about a completely socialist society, he might be right, but that to me would classify as a communist society. Canada and Sweden both have heavy elements of socialism in their economies. They are democratic and seem to be getting along just fine. (Well actually I am kinda wrong here, Sweden is technically a constitutional monarchy, but the kind does not really do much, plus, in theory Canada and Sweden both are considered market economies with socialist elements mixed in.) I feel as if just because no one has insitued a successful socialist economy in a democratic state just yet, does not mean that it is impossible. Only it would take a very skilled government, and a people that has tremendous faith in said governmetn to actually have a socialist democracy. But Friedman is a smart guy, and I like his knock on social security, because its gonna be in shambles before anyone in my generation has a chance to touch what they are puting into the gov't.
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2 comments:
I'm happy you made a stand about socialism and democracy. The two are not mutually exclusive. It would be great if more people would understand this. Friedman should have understood this being such an intelligent mind of the times.
Well I think you raise some good points, but there's a lot to be said for governments with socialistic elements in them. I wrote a paper about the benefits of living in a country like Sweden last year, and I can tell you that people are very well taken care of there. It actually has consistently been ranked within the top two for the past few years on the Human Rights Index if that's any indication. I personally think socialist-esque governments, while more centralized and involved, are more reliable because they give virtually everyone some sense of security.
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