> If you are that strong a believer in the evils of socialism do you avoid Freeways, airports and the internet?
Well you are conflating a few things here, it not black and white. It is funny to see how stating something that seems obvious to me gets me downvoted and categorized as an extremist anti-socialism...
I see some evils in socialism, but probably not the one you believe. For instance claiming that healthcare is free in a socialist country is one of the most evil aspect of it. My main grief is that people treats it as something that they can waste and don't need to be careful about. Same for "free" universities: student thinking it is "free" don't have much pressure to actually take the most of it and be careful about their choice (let's do a first year of sociology studies after high school because I don't know what I really want to do, and then I can still do a first year of psychology studies, and I'll figure later what I'll do with all this...).
On the other hand, after growing up in France and now living in the US, I learnt that this is all not free and I consider this very previous for the French society. I won't advocate against these welfare benefits, on the opposite I think they should reinforced in many ways however I would like the state of mind of people to change with respect to these "free" benefits, starting by stopping to use the word "free".
As a concrete action, I would send the full healthcare statements to patients, showing how much it costs and how much the taxpayers money is offsetting. I was in the hospital in France multiple times, I have no idea how much it costs, I didn't pay anything as far as I remember, and didn't have a statement.
The same approach can be used for University and other welfare benefit.
I'm not the GP and think we probably should have more socialized hospitals.
But suggesting people who oppose publicly funded freeways should boycott publicly funded freeways is silly.
Imagine an office Christmas party where everyone is told to chip in for refreshments and then the refreshments will be whatever the boss ends up buying with that money. I may not like that arrangement, and may prefer to keep my money and bring my own food for myself. But, given that I have to pay in, I feel no need to abstain from eating the salad that the boss ends up providing using everyone's money.
Right, indeed I think that in this situation eating the salad does not prevent you from criticizing the party.
But this is the point, you were "forced" to pay for something and you would be okay with not getting it. If only the people who paid for the Christmas party were invited that would be okay.
Do you think this reasoning should also apply to streets and hospitals?
(I am specifically referring to using the word "forced" and the moral implication of using it)
> Do you think this reasoning should also apply to streets and hospitals?
Probably not.
But neither do I find it hypocritical to utilize publicly funded medicine (since you already paid in) while also opposing it (because you would be willing to forgo it to avoid paying in). The opposition is perhaps cruel or inconsiderate of others, but certainly not hypocritical. People who construe it as such are either confused or intellectually dishonest.
Well you are conflating a few things here, it not black and white. It is funny to see how stating something that seems obvious to me gets me downvoted and categorized as an extremist anti-socialism...
I see some evils in socialism, but probably not the one you believe. For instance claiming that healthcare is free in a socialist country is one of the most evil aspect of it. My main grief is that people treats it as something that they can waste and don't need to be careful about. Same for "free" universities: student thinking it is "free" don't have much pressure to actually take the most of it and be careful about their choice (let's do a first year of sociology studies after high school because I don't know what I really want to do, and then I can still do a first year of psychology studies, and I'll figure later what I'll do with all this...).
On the other hand, after growing up in France and now living in the US, I learnt that this is all not free and I consider this very previous for the French society. I won't advocate against these welfare benefits, on the opposite I think they should reinforced in many ways however I would like the state of mind of people to change with respect to these "free" benefits, starting by stopping to use the word "free".
As a concrete action, I would send the full healthcare statements to patients, showing how much it costs and how much the taxpayers money is offsetting. I was in the hospital in France multiple times, I have no idea how much it costs, I didn't pay anything as far as I remember, and didn't have a statement. The same approach can be used for University and other welfare benefit.