Nazi was short for ‘Nazional Sozialist’ but the first people they put into concentration camps were communists and socialists. ‘National socialism’ was an entirely different animal, about as far removed from socialism as it's possible to get.
As for free education and health care, unfortunately here in the UK we've been increasingly influenced by the US model. I graduated in 1996 as a mature student and was among the last to enjoy free secondary education. The following year tuition fees were introduced and student grants were replaced by student loans. The far right don't want an educated population because they won't vote for them. Having a well educated population actually increases a country's wealth, productivity and wellbeing as it fosters a more equal society. Personally I think it's just a good thing even without the numerous benefits.
Which brings me in to our National Health Service (NHS). This was the crowning achievement of Nye Bevan (Aneurin Bevan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aneurin_Bevan?wprov=sfla1), Minister for Health under Clement Atlee's postwar Labour government. Unfortunately, the Tories (Conservative Party, commonly called the Tory Party) have been steadily privatising it by the back door and on the quiet over the last 13 years of their rule. They actually want a US health system! As you said, the US health system is one of the most expensive and least effective in the developed world. The NHS is ‘’comprehensive, universal and free at the point of delivery, a health service based on clinical need, not ability to pay”. Apart from the steady increase of outsourcing to private healthcare providers, Brexit has caused a huge number of vacancies as EU citizens left the UK in droves, leaving the NHS severely understaffed. I'm convinced that this was all a ploy by the Tories to undermine the NHS. Waiting lists have increased massively giving the Tories an excuse for more and more privatisation. Despite their claims of ‘record’ funding, it's actually also been severely underfunded – of course they've put ‘record’ funding into the NHS, healthcare gets more expensive every year, not cheaper. NHS staff have endured a 25% pay cut in real terms over the last 13 years. Before the Tories came to power the NHS was ranked in the top three healthcare providers in the world. It's dropped to well below the top 15. The fact that it still ranks as highly as it does is due to the sheer dedication of its severely overworked and underpaid staff. Unsurprisingly the last two years have seen the biggest strikes by nurses and doctors in its history. During the pandemic the British public showed its appreciation of the selfless work by its staff by applauding them every Wednesday at 20:00. Yet now the shameless Tories are blaming NHS workers for all its woes. What's more, the Tories' deliberate sabotaging of the NHS has barely been mentioned in the press. Even the BBC has hardly mentioned it (the BBC is an independent, publicly funded broadcaster, financed through a licence fee. Every household that has equipment capable of receiving terrestrial broadcasts must purchase a TV licence. So while it is independent, the Tories keep threatening to revoke the licence, which is reviewed every five years. They've also appointed several of their cronies to the BBC's directorship. They frequently complain of left-wing bias when, if anything, the opposite is true. For example, UKIP, now called Reform, a right-wing pro Brexit party are invariably invited for comment & participation in political debate programmes, yet they have just one MP (member of parliament) yet the Green Party, who also have one MP almost never). There can be only one reason the Tories want a US type healthcare service: corruption and greed. The number of MPs that have interests in private healthcare providers is shocking and, unfortunately, isn't limited to Tories. The opposition spokesperson for health is also advocating more privatisation to solve the backlog. The NHS was something the British were justly proud of. The politicians who are dismantling it will go down in infamy, but I fear it'll be too late, the damage will have been done and, to our shame, we will have a two tier health system. To profit from the misfortune of people suffering from illness is just plain wrong, morally bankrupt. We should judge a society by the way it treats its most vulnerable and disadvantaged. The way the UK is has been going under a venal Tory party is deplorable.
Wow thank you so much for this detailed explanation. I’m a US citizen. I had heard complaints about UK shenanigans but your details help clear understanding. My god the US, too, is such a racket country in every way, and we have sooooo many identity politics idiots furthering this nonsense to contend with.
Jun 27Liked by Oliver Markus Malloy, Kamala rocks!
Free college and university education (in Germany):
There was a minimal tuition fee (around $50.00) per semester in the late 1980's if i recall correctly.
What "the system" in the US with its current abhorrent and exploitative education costs does it is
1. prohibiting bright and capable individuals to get a degree (with the exception of scholarships) when they do not have the financial means
2. Completely leave out that higher educated individual will over the course of their lifetime pay alot more taxes, which should over the course of their working lifetime easily offset the costs the government incurred for providing this "free" higher education
3. Limits, or eliminates a higher level of consumption (spending money) supporting the overall economy by those graduates as their main focus from what I have gathered is to pay off their student loans.
Jun 27Liked by Oliver Markus Malloy, Kamala rocks!
The Healing of America by T. R. Reid. It’s truly amazing that this country doesn’t have universal health care. And Sweden also has free college for anyone.
It is more accurate to say that government taking responsibility for basic human needs is a social democracy. Socialism involves the nationalization of industries producing goods and services essential for human development.
Yes, people take from others and arrange what they can to continue doing so. Yes people’s principles are pretty limiting and for the most part unexamined.
No, people fostering this craziness are stupid. Actually, it’s brilliantly the opposite. People who are being “taken advantage of” are getting compensated by the most valuable payoffs humans collect until they realize the cost.
Those payoffs include getting to be right about how bad life is. Most people will trade being right and making others wrong in less than a heartbeat. The cost is merely their experience of being related or truly connected to others.
Another irresistible payoff is being justified and invalidating others. And there are more.
The point is predators require prey. Casting this proposition into the space denies dignity. It effectively communicates the unspoken idea that that people are fundamental nothing more than things in relation to others things.
If you look beneath this common unexamined view you will discover for yourself that being as in human being is unimaginably vast and not merely a thing among things.
Nazi was short for ‘Nazional Sozialist’ but the first people they put into concentration camps were communists and socialists. ‘National socialism’ was an entirely different animal, about as far removed from socialism as it's possible to get.
As for free education and health care, unfortunately here in the UK we've been increasingly influenced by the US model. I graduated in 1996 as a mature student and was among the last to enjoy free secondary education. The following year tuition fees were introduced and student grants were replaced by student loans. The far right don't want an educated population because they won't vote for them. Having a well educated population actually increases a country's wealth, productivity and wellbeing as it fosters a more equal society. Personally I think it's just a good thing even without the numerous benefits.
Which brings me in to our National Health Service (NHS). This was the crowning achievement of Nye Bevan (Aneurin Bevan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aneurin_Bevan?wprov=sfla1), Minister for Health under Clement Atlee's postwar Labour government. Unfortunately, the Tories (Conservative Party, commonly called the Tory Party) have been steadily privatising it by the back door and on the quiet over the last 13 years of their rule. They actually want a US health system! As you said, the US health system is one of the most expensive and least effective in the developed world. The NHS is ‘’comprehensive, universal and free at the point of delivery, a health service based on clinical need, not ability to pay”. Apart from the steady increase of outsourcing to private healthcare providers, Brexit has caused a huge number of vacancies as EU citizens left the UK in droves, leaving the NHS severely understaffed. I'm convinced that this was all a ploy by the Tories to undermine the NHS. Waiting lists have increased massively giving the Tories an excuse for more and more privatisation. Despite their claims of ‘record’ funding, it's actually also been severely underfunded – of course they've put ‘record’ funding into the NHS, healthcare gets more expensive every year, not cheaper. NHS staff have endured a 25% pay cut in real terms over the last 13 years. Before the Tories came to power the NHS was ranked in the top three healthcare providers in the world. It's dropped to well below the top 15. The fact that it still ranks as highly as it does is due to the sheer dedication of its severely overworked and underpaid staff. Unsurprisingly the last two years have seen the biggest strikes by nurses and doctors in its history. During the pandemic the British public showed its appreciation of the selfless work by its staff by applauding them every Wednesday at 20:00. Yet now the shameless Tories are blaming NHS workers for all its woes. What's more, the Tories' deliberate sabotaging of the NHS has barely been mentioned in the press. Even the BBC has hardly mentioned it (the BBC is an independent, publicly funded broadcaster, financed through a licence fee. Every household that has equipment capable of receiving terrestrial broadcasts must purchase a TV licence. So while it is independent, the Tories keep threatening to revoke the licence, which is reviewed every five years. They've also appointed several of their cronies to the BBC's directorship. They frequently complain of left-wing bias when, if anything, the opposite is true. For example, UKIP, now called Reform, a right-wing pro Brexit party are invariably invited for comment & participation in political debate programmes, yet they have just one MP (member of parliament) yet the Green Party, who also have one MP almost never). There can be only one reason the Tories want a US type healthcare service: corruption and greed. The number of MPs that have interests in private healthcare providers is shocking and, unfortunately, isn't limited to Tories. The opposition spokesperson for health is also advocating more privatisation to solve the backlog. The NHS was something the British were justly proud of. The politicians who are dismantling it will go down in infamy, but I fear it'll be too late, the damage will have been done and, to our shame, we will have a two tier health system. To profit from the misfortune of people suffering from illness is just plain wrong, morally bankrupt. We should judge a society by the way it treats its most vulnerable and disadvantaged. The way the UK is has been going under a venal Tory party is deplorable.
Wow thank you so much for this detailed explanation. I’m a US citizen. I had heard complaints about UK shenanigans but your details help clear understanding. My god the US, too, is such a racket country in every way, and we have sooooo many identity politics idiots furthering this nonsense to contend with.
It's a shame MAGAts will never read this, but even if they did,it would just result in their calling the author a communist.
Free college and university education (in Germany):
There was a minimal tuition fee (around $50.00) per semester in the late 1980's if i recall correctly.
What "the system" in the US with its current abhorrent and exploitative education costs does it is
1. prohibiting bright and capable individuals to get a degree (with the exception of scholarships) when they do not have the financial means
2. Completely leave out that higher educated individual will over the course of their lifetime pay alot more taxes, which should over the course of their working lifetime easily offset the costs the government incurred for providing this "free" higher education
3. Limits, or eliminates a higher level of consumption (spending money) supporting the overall economy by those graduates as their main focus from what I have gathered is to pay off their student loans.
The Healing of America by T. R. Reid. It’s truly amazing that this country doesn’t have universal health care. And Sweden also has free college for anyone.
Jesse Waters is truly a dipshit
It is more accurate to say that government taking responsibility for basic human needs is a social democracy. Socialism involves the nationalization of industries producing goods and services essential for human development.
Yes and no.
Yes, people take from others and arrange what they can to continue doing so. Yes people’s principles are pretty limiting and for the most part unexamined.
No, people fostering this craziness are stupid. Actually, it’s brilliantly the opposite. People who are being “taken advantage of” are getting compensated by the most valuable payoffs humans collect until they realize the cost.
Those payoffs include getting to be right about how bad life is. Most people will trade being right and making others wrong in less than a heartbeat. The cost is merely their experience of being related or truly connected to others.
Another irresistible payoff is being justified and invalidating others. And there are more.
The point is predators require prey. Casting this proposition into the space denies dignity. It effectively communicates the unspoken idea that that people are fundamental nothing more than things in relation to others things.
If you look beneath this common unexamined view you will discover for yourself that being as in human being is unimaginably vast and not merely a thing among things.