Kandahar said:
Absolutely not. Both a national sales tax and universal health care would be economically devastating.
I couldn't agree more. Socialism IN GENERAL stagnates economies, cripples production, and kills innovation. I hate it.
The last numbers I saw had Germany's growth rate at 1.1% and dropping, for years. France was 2.2% and dropping, for years.
Our rate was 5.4% and climbing, for years. And 5.4% of an economy OUR size is way, way bigger than 5% of an economy Germany's or France's size!
In their world, around 40% of the workers work for the government. Employees are virtually impossible to fire. Everything costs a fortune. Health care is terrible, slow, and behind in technology. In France, the GOVERNMENT RUN internet hasn't been upgraded since 1996. When people recently started complaining about the poor state of their internet, the government's brilliant solution was to give them a choice between different colored backgrounds for their PCs. It's really laughable.
Remember when the British got to be in charge of one sector of West Germany's reconstruction and we were in charge of the other? They did things their way (socialism), and we did them ours. Within a year, we had to bail them out because their sector's incredibly stagnate economy had grounded to a halt and they couldn't keep it running.
Think about public schools, public transportation, public housing, government food, BMVs and all other things public...
Now think about private schools, private transportation, private housing, store-bought food, and all things private.
There is a reason private is always better, and it is not money. D.C. schools are the most over-funded schools per capita and they are at the bottom in performance. It is about competition. Government agencies have no reason to penny-pinch, to innovate, to cut costs. Actually, government agencies usually waste as much money and resources as possible to be guaranteed equal or greater funding the next year.
The private sector does it faster, cheaper, and better.
Socialism takes all the priority off productivity and innovation and places it all on making life suck a little bit less for those who do the very least for their own station in life.
Socialism is a disease. Let's keep it contained in Europe.