What Form of Government Can Achieve the Most Happiness?
Believe in the radical idea of sharing and caring.
What is the point of having a society?
If the point of having a society isn’t to care for each other, to ease suffering, and realize each life’s potential.
Then what is the point?
To hoard wealth? Popularize haughtiness? To violently build empires on other people’s throats?
Life is brief, nothing lasts, wealth and empires are pointless violence.
How can we harbor a community that will be built on the fostering and nurturing of its people?
Democratic Socialism
Before I get into the main dissertation of this piece I’ll briefly explain how capitalism is failing everyone except the elite. Conservatives and capitalist alike believe privatized services are better than public services. Capitalism is a system of exploitation. The work of the workers is stolen by those who are not providing the labor. The “free market” does not exist anymore, gigantic corporations with immense power dominate the market. It disregards many ethical issues in pursuit of supply and demand. The resources are all taken directly from nature, our heritage, our home, then exchanged for chemical runoff, poisons, and wholesale destruction. The marginalized are becoming even more marginalized, with unequal access to housing, education, healthcare, and wholesome foods.
Being a socialist is an ethical decision. You either believe everyone is equal and has fundamental human rights or you chose to be a Conservative. Our drives as a society need to be PRO-PEOPLE, not PRO-CEO.
Democratic Socialism is the political philosophy that the government has a responsibility in providing its people’s most basic needs and should help all people have an equal chance at achieving success. Does this work?
Finland, Norway, and Denmark (all of which practice a form of democratic socialism) are some of the happiest countries in the world according to the World Economic Forum. Yes, it is notoriously difficult to quantify, happiness and well-being, but, they can be assessed through examination in GDP per capita, social support, life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and corruption levels. Many accounts for statistics were taken from surveys, from the people themselves and these were the results:
When the government plays a role in assessing its countries institutions, wealth is distributed equally. Socialist principles like constitutional limits on government power, a system of checks and balances, and vigorous legal and political protection of basic, could maintain positive peace. My ideal government is one that fights against forms of oppression like violence, exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, and cultural imperialism. My ideal government provides for the basic needs of its people, healthcare, pharmacare, dentistry, optometry, water, electricity, education, modern infrastructure, retirement homes, low-income housing, and more.
What about the elderly?
Socialism has the greatest goal for the commonwealth; it reduces disparity in wealth, not only in different areas but, also in all societal classes. Those who suffer from illnesses or who are too old to work are still provided for and valued by the government, assuming that the government is more compassionate than the individual’s family. Socialism has social security schemes that provide security in old age, while minimum wages, employment protection, and other labor rights ensure a fair wage and safety at work.
What about the children?
Even a child with no political intelligence or participation would still have political protection in a democratic socialist society. Families with lower incomes will not be marginalized and be forced to attend lower quality schools because the focus would be on teachers rather than on testing and technology. Government funding would be applied equally to all schools, and classes in the arts available to all students. Quality of a student’s school should be related to the social composition of the school, the student’s sense of control over their environment related to their future, and the social skills of the teachers. If the child is heightened properly her possibilities are boundless. Children aren’t products to be bought and sold, they are young buds waiting to be flourished with compassion and education. The profit motive should end at the front door of the public school.
What about the immigrants?
In a capitalist society native borns are outearning immigrants to the tune of thousands of dollars. However, in a socialist society the means of making, moving, and trading wealth is owned or controlled by the community as a whole if an immigrant is part of the community he is equally subject to this wealth. Immigrants are accommodated for by minimum wages, employment protection and trade union recognition rights for the benefit of workers. These policies aim to guarantee living wages and help produce full employment. While a number of different models of trade union protection have evolved throughout the world over time, they all guarantee the right of workers to form unions, negotiate benefits, and participate in strikes.
What about the millionaires?
In a democratic socialist society, a millionaires revenue may be subject to exploitation because the government handles the redistribution of wealth, through tax and spending policies that aim to reduce economic inequalities. Social democracies typically employ various forms of progressive taxation regarding wage and business income, wealth, inheritance, capital gains, and property. However, what is taken from him will be given back in other forms of necessities like subsidized access to housing, food, pharmaceutical goods, water supply, waste management, and electricity. On the spending side, a set of social policies typically provides free access to public services such as education, health care, and childcare.
Everyone gains the security of knowing that their rights to life, liberty, and property are protected. Under a social democracy that coexists with ideas of utilitarianism and liberalism the rights of all are protected.
Our communities need to start practicing gratification, replace the darkness with light, the secret to expanding joy is to cherish the preciousness of life and grasping how easily it can be taken or dictated.
Wealth and empires are pointless violence.
