I am a proponent of the capitalist system in general. It has provided a nice living for me and my family. I’ve only been employed by two business in the 25+ years since I graduated (but 5 changes in ownership!). But the conservatives, in my opinion, make a mistake when they try to extend capitalism from businesses to social structures- rights based social programs.
I’ve never bought into the slippery slope argument used to argue against change. We are collectively bright enough to walk up to the edge of the slippery slope without falling down it.
I think Medicare and Social Security are good examples of functional, never to be undone, rights based social programs. We now have a right to bottom line medical care and income when we retire. We did the right things here. Liberal values won the day. We can and will eventually win elsewhere. The liberal values of yesterday become to conservative values of tomorrow. No conservative who hopes for re-election would argue for the elimination of either.
Education and charter schools- a basic education is a right in our society. Charter schools are an attempt to move this right into the business sector. By doing so, we are missing the point. If our education system is inadequate in any way, we should focus on fixing it not throwing up our hands and saying “maybe the private sector can fix it”. There is absolutely no reason why the private sector should be able to do it better or cheaper. Charter schools may produce better result in some cases, but they certainly produce very poor results also. They will never do it cheaper, as that isn’t even in the program. We should focus our public money and efforts on making public schools everything they need to be. FOCUS without distraction. Isolate them from the swings of political influence. Politics can have a hand in regulating expectations but not day-to-day issues. They also need to be isolated from undo religious influence. Although I am an atheist I really don’t have a problem with kids saying “one nation under God”- they can define God however they see fit. Collective human goodness is a good definition for non-believers. Personally, I think a course in religion should be a mandatory high school course, covering all the major religions. Religion(s) influences the lives of everyone whether we believe or not. A broad understanding of religion is important and the current troubles with Muslim extremism is a perfect example. But the Biblical creation story and creationism, by any name, have no place in mandatory public education science classes.
Tags: argument, business, capitalism, charter school, Education, Medicare, opinion, political influence, private sector, public school, regulate, Religion, slippery slope, Social, Social Security, socialist
