In the United States of America, issues on income and wealth inequality, universal healthcare and free college tuition for all have all been the topic of conversation for quite some time. These issues just sit in the hands of the media or in the voices of some of the American people, without being given the chance to be heard on the senate floor or become a bill. In today’s society the top 1% rule the country. The wealthy are not taxed as they should be and people go in debt and even die due to a high cost of medical bills and medicine. Many Americans are in debt due to large student loans that are so expensive they can’t afford to pay it all back.
A few decades ago the average family could live off of one paycheck and afford to own a home and retire comfortably but that is not the case in today’s world. The wealth inequality is so bad that minimum wage does not cover the cost of living. These are some of the major issues that people begin to experience as soon as they hit young adulthood. Many people want answers and solution but when socialism is mentioned people are afraid of the word without the full knowledge on this ideology. In a country full of inequality social democracy is the ideology that could help save our democracy.
Social democracy is a heavily regulated version of capitalism and a mixed market economy with strong socialist aspects. Social democracy is the furthest left you can go without getting into communism. It takes the best parts of socialism and the best parts of communism and fuses them together to create a world with free healthcare for everyone, free college tuition and even universal daycare. A society for the people by the people. Social Democracy was first started with trade unions and in a movement for labor workers. The people were demanding a wealth redistribution because of large corporations and the amount of wealth they had gained. Social democracy is against market manipulation and against corporate greed. Social Democracy is widely concerned with issues that affects the American people on an everyday basis, issues that have not been held to the utmost importance and problems that need to be solved.
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O’Brien explains in his article “A socialist for president?”, Americans have been slow to accept wider social responsibilities when it comes to the environment, wages, and healthy food. In addition, many Americans are discouraged about public education, public safety, and, perhaps most of all, public finance. Democratic socialists share these anxieties but insist that good government, not even more limited government, is the solution. And good government means self-government: making public services better requires the commitment of everyone to the common good and to the renewal of democratic practices, in workplaces and local communities as well as in government (9). Although people are not satisfied with the way the government has run the country it still has not been enough to incite change.
I fully support the political ideology of Social Democracy. I come from a low income home and my family and I are a minority group. Growing up, my family was not able to attend college because of the lack of money to do so. My mother worked a minimum wage job that even at overtime didn’t pay enough to live comfortably. In 2004 my mother was diagnosed with lupus and she had to stop working. She applied for disability but between the time she applied and the several times she was denied before being approved she had gone in debt with doctors and hospitals. Her medical expenses left her without any money.
Once she received her disability check it was only enough to barely cover the cost of living. We began living disability check to disability check. My agent of socialization started with my family and the hardship we went through to make it as an immigrant family in the United States. Seeing the complete and total greed of the 1% left me disgusted with the views of the political parties that backed these corporate monsters. In 2008 I had just turned 18 and had my first chance of voting.
Voting to me always felt powerful and I enjoyed contributing to society and voicing my opinions. After a full observation of both parties I decided to vote for Barack Obama. I felt that the views of the democrats were closer to my political views but there was still issues that I didn’t agree with. It wasn’t till 2016 when Bernie Sanders ran for presidency that my values and beliefs matched up perfectly to social democracy or democratic socialism. I felt as if I had finally found my place in the political world. My beliefs have always favored equality. I have always valued human life over money and social democracy guarantees universal healthcare.
In a country with an expensive health care system where people die because they can not afford their medicine we are in dire need of free healthcare for everyone. Money should not be more important than someone’s life. If the beliefs and values of social democracy were enforced right now large corporations would suffer. The wealth would be taken and redistributed properly among the people. Wall street would also be endanger as well as and the wealthy would be taxed depending on how much they earn.
With America running on an industrial and military complex it has halted social democracy from standing a chance at changing the world for the better interest of its people due to greed and power. Social Democracy has changed my view on income and wealth inequality. As a child growing up in a low income family my dreams and aspirations were to rise from poverty and grow up and get rich. As I got older and developed a sense of the world and the people around me I am now satisfied with a wage to cover the cost of comfortable living only if everyone is issued that same promise. Corporate greed and the industrial complex of the nation has shaped my views and humbled me into the ideas of social democracy.
The core principals in an ideology like social democracy leave the power with the people. The values and beliefs this ideology shapes is the unity of Americans. The fundamental rights to wealth, education and healthcare should be a value all citizens of the United States can stand up and fight for. Every day people should have the right to attend school without crippling depth to follow. They should have access to free healthcare as well as be payed a livable wage. This ideology has sat on the back burners for decades until today. With self-proclaimed democratic socialists such as Bernie Sanders running for president and congress woman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez winning her place in the senate there is a hopeful future for social democracy in the United States of America.
References
- O’Brien, D. (2015). A socialist for president? What Bernie Sanders could bring to the campaign. Commonweal, (11), 9. Retrieved from https://login.delmar.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsglr&AN=edsgcl.420713264&site=eds-live&scope=site
