When did socialism become a bad word? It's funny, Canadian conservatives who decry socialism have been taking advantage of socialist policies their entire lives. #cdnpoli
— Neil Before Zod™ (@WaytowichNeil) January 25, 2021
When did socialism become a bad word? Always, because socialism takes away free choice.
Take, for a minor example, public healthcare. I do not want public healthcare. I don't want to have hours of my day stolen from me to pay for it, I do not wish to have hours stolen from me waiting for it to be rationed to me, and I do not wish for doctors and nurses to be forced to only work for a single employer.
I want to build a private hospital, charge money for people to use it, and then use that profit I earn to buy myself things (including, when I have a mind for it, healthcare).
So how am I "taking advantage" of public healthcare when I explicitly want the alternative? After all, if I tried to open a 100% private for-profit hospital I would be imprisoned. Being forced to live under this system does not imply consent. Neil simply has decided that everybody wants his sick freedom-impinging world and is convinced that we simply don't realize what the name is for this system we live under and are equally satisfied as he is to be a vassal under its yoke.
In a free market system, anybody can choose to be socialist. Under a socialist system, nobody can choose to be a free marketer.
Let's instead envision a Canada (that, mind you, existed within living memory...so much for "their entire lives" and worked really well) that didn't have these "socialist policies". Let's simply imagine that healthcare, like most things we can buy and sell, is instead run under a voluntary system of trade. I want a hospital that charges each patient† a fee for the services rendered. You walk in and say you need a checkup, or a lung transplant, and they provide it to you in return for cash.
† You may be wondering how third party payees such as employer-provided health insurance factors into this, which means you've clearly never had to perform repairs on a vehicle involved in an accident before.
Yes indeed, if you don't have the cash you don't get the service. As Martok has noted on several occasions, the same thing is true at Sobey's if you try to walk out with a big bag of rice without giving them money in return. The left always insists that healthcare, which of course is less important than groceries, cannot follow basic supply and demand for reasons they never bother to explain. So yes, you have to pay for things that you want: it's the exact same system that we use for apples and stereo cables, and somehow we've managed to work within it. So that's the healthcare system I want.
Neil wants a system where people lose a certain percentage of their paycheque every week, and in return can just walk into a hospital with their healthcare ID card and get all the healthcare they want for free. Here's the dirty little secret though: this system can exist within a free market system. There could easily be a hospital who doesn't treat you when you come in with cash, no matter how much cash you throw at them: instead you need to show your OHIP card or what have you that proves you've been paying into this system every paycheque. If you're like me and don't contribute to this fund with a payment that is set based on your income, then they won't treat you.
We currently have Hutterite communes even though the agricultural sector is (more or less) a free market economy. While it's true that the Hutterites benefit from the high levels of disposable income capitalism has provided their neighbours, no Canadian conservatives would say they have been "taking advantage of capitalist policies their entire lives" other than accepting that they could decide tomorrow to stop being a commune and nobody would imprison them...again contrasted to me opening up a private hospital.
So please spare us this nonsense about "taking advantage" of things like public healthcare and public education when we hate these as fundamentally evil and would cheer to be released from the bonds of them.
