I am bewildered about American reactions to socialism. Maybe it’s because we think it’s Communism? It isn’t, you know. I spent ten years in a socialist country. The main difference was that there were many parties running candidates for the Knesset some of which were very small — and we paid significantly higher taxes. In return for the taxes, we got excellent high-quality health care. No one was homeless. If you had no work, the government made sure you minimally had a place to live and food to eat. Old people didn’t wind up homeless or freezing or without medication or doctors.

In every socialist country, you can work “outside” the socialist market. You can choose to work in the private sector. That’s where I worked most of the time — except when I worked for the University of Jerusalem. We had fewer safety nets — not none, but fewer — in the private sector, but we got better pay. On which we paid taxes. Of course because everyone paid taxes and I do mean everyone.

Taxes were more acceptable. For the money we paid, we got services on which we could rely.

Here, in wild mid-central Massachusetts, we pay huge property taxes plus federal and state income taxes and sometimes, town or city taxes. For which, if you live in the country rather than the city or suburbs, you get nothing. Out here, we get literally nothing. We have no town water, sewage or trash collection. We pay for everything. We have no streetlights, no sidewalks.

The only thing the town does is plow roads when it snows. Every few years, they repave if the road gets undrivable. We get lousy wifi over which we have NO choice. It’s iffy wifi at a high price without cable.

That’s what we get for the $6000 a year we pay in property taxes. Oh, I almost forgot: we also pay an automobile excise tax which is effectively paying sales tax on the car you already own and on which you previously paid sales taxes when you bought it.

I paid higher taxes in Israel but hospitals were free. Doctors were free. Medication was free. You could upgrade to a snazzier medical plan for a bit more money. Not a lot more, though. Just a bit. If you had no money, you got the same service but in a clinic setting. Doctors didn’t get rich. If we had any billionaires, they had the decency to shut up about it. There were plenty of public resources for child care and it was very good care. Children were protected by everyone, Jews and Arabs alike. On that one thing, there was no argument.

Otherwise, it was no different than living anywhere else. You liked the government or hated the government. You voted. Sometimes your party lost. Other times, it won or wound up in a tie, in which case they did what parliamentary systems do: they lobbied madly to form a majority by collecting the smaller parties into a bundle that was bigger than the bundle the other team collected.

Whether the government succeeded or failed was, as it is everywhere, a bit of a crap shoot. If they failed, there would be a new election. Elections were scheduled, but if the government was voted down, a new election could be called anytime. You didn’t have to wait years.

When your government succeeded? If you were lucky, it was a government of which you approved. If not, oh well. No matter who won, you could be sure many people wouldn’t approve. Even when both major parties formed a unified government to deal with problems neither party was willing to handle alone, there were plenty of people who hated them anyway. There are a surprising number of people everywhere in the world that just hate government. We used to call them anarchists, but these days, who knows what they are.

There were also plenty of scandals but we had had a free press. When they tried to control the news, the TV news people went on strike. News 1, government 0.

I don’t know why everyone thinks socialism is bad. It’s just another way of running a country. It’s not communism. It’s not destructive. Personally, I thought it was better in most ways — but not every way. You will never find a population who completely approve of their government. It’s impossible to get everyone in any nation to agree on anything. Ever.

At some point, the Likud started winning elections and appointed some bad leaders who made terrible choices. That’s government for you. Your party doesn’t always win, but a change of government isn’t supposed to be a national tragedy. It’s politics. Change happens and life goes on.

In recent years, it has been tragic. A country’s leader should not be an arrogant asshole or worse, a crooked, corrupt arrogant asshole but so often politicians are exactly that. It must be something about the job itself. No matter where you live, the result can be surprisingly similar although the difference between America today and the America in which I grew up is jarring to say the least.

Socialism is another way to run a country.
It’s not evil or perfect. Just different.

If I had a choice? Socialism is easier to live with. It’s a more flexible form of government and you never have to worry about dying on the street or not getting buried or cremated because you can’t afford a doctor, a place to live or a funeral. Socialism works. Look around the world at democracies and you will find most of them are socialist. Not identical because there are many shadings in socialism, often unique to a specific nation. Of course it works better some places than others, but on the whole, no one would swap their socialist government for our disastrous mess.

If you are busy screaming about the nightmare of socialism, you might pause to consider what socialism means to your average working stiff. Socialism eliminates the likelihood of your becoming a billionaire, but seriously — what are the odds of you becoming a billionaire anyway? Do you know any billionaires?

Instead, you have the freedom to live without fearing your next medical or pharmacy bill. Or, for that matter, whether or not you will be able to be buried, cremated, or left to rot because no one has the money to pay for a funeral.

It is certainly something worth thinking about.

Categories: Anecdote, Government, Israel, Money, socialism, taxes

Tags: bad leaders and good leader, changes of leadership should not be a tragedy, democracy, Government, Marilyn Armstrong, socialism