In first year econ, we were shown that no country is purely capitalist or socialist and this binary form of thinking is outdated. People's mentality is shaped by a media crusade against socialism which was the ideological paradigm at the time of the cold war: if you are against this capitalist system, you are a filthy, godless, destined for failure communist, resigned to live off of the money other people earn and inherently lazy as you have no god given selfish spark to hoard all wealth for yourself.
The fact is, we studied in econ 101, most states are hybrids with no state having the political appetite to practice an ideological pure form of either system.
In practice, most people think that any country with benefits in place for all people with the state bearing the majority of the cost are "socialist".
Canada's few socialist benefits include:
-unviversal healthcare
-subsidized college - not free, but not 4x the cost as in the usa
-a standing armed forces
-postal service
-cost controlled dairy
-social assistance
-old age pension
-disability benefits
-employment insurance
-maternal leave of 1 year
-price controlled pharmaceuticals
-(in BC) $15 min wage
Of course, at every turn, Canada has a sizeable population who are very profit minded and malign all these services as they perceive it to be hindering their wealth growth. So at every turn they attempt to steer the political process with an aim to whittle these services down merely to cut their tax rate and thus ensure more money in their pockets to spend in the Canadian free market - usually equating to more mansion, more stock portfolio, more cars, more prestige with net worth increasing.
In the United States, to make a comparison, even the Democratic party here would be considered neo fascist in some regards. Obamacare is so disheartening because all it could compromise to accomplish was to make private insurance companies insure people they otherwise would not insure. It is tear jerking. In Canada, each province has established an insurance company that everyone is required to be enrolled in. Those at a certian level of income pay premiums, those below, pay no premiums. In BC, our premiere , perhaps with a better grasp on our provinces' capital outlays for the long term, eliminated premiums all together. The government is currently paying all premiums. Finally, as an added, capitalist layer, many peoplr have private, American type, employment based health insurance to cover you for things not included in basic coverage, like dental care.
Much like basic economics, most people do not have a grasp for what insurance actually means. Insurance in simple terms is the money of the many being pooled to pay for the losses of the few. If that sounds familiar, well, it is rather an advanced product of capitlaism - socialism! The only difference with the Canadian, public, compulsory, provincial insurance companies and their private, free market, usually employment based insurance cousins, is the profit motive. Candian medical insurance companies are not set up to make a profit. There is no motivation to deny coverage or null and void policies. There are no deductibles to pay. These are huge differences as you may see that human misery is the result of medical insurance companies having a huge profit motive and achieving it. In the United States, much like Canada, economic gains externalize costs - mcdonalds sells cheap burgers, turns a profit, does not have the extra tax burden of having to care for complications in obesity, diabetese and cardiac failure or cancer from processed cheese - these costs are born by citizens alone through private insurance plans that may not cover you and may cripple you if you get sick. Oil companies, tobacoo companies, etc all get to make profit without the added tax burden of having to care for the cancer patients their profits produce. In Canada, everyone shares in this cost. The rich bitch about how they don't get to fly, but there are enough Canadians presently to outvote this mentality, for the time being.
Healthcare is just one example where the American rich have gamed the system to ensure they pocket more of their own "earnings". The pork barrel, endless enemy making, military industrial complex is another. The gutting of public education is another. $40k a year tuition universities is another. Financial assistance for the masses stonewalled during a pandemic because turtle man mitch mconnell insisting the aid package come with a massive tax cut for the rich is another. The slashing of environmental protections so america can be great again is another. The use of illegal migrant workers as a sort of modern day slave is another. This system is actually just (if you watch oliver stone's untold history of usa documentary on netflix) merely a continution of the national socialist (nazi) ideology carried out in a watered down form (so, the fight against stalin continued by other means) with the help of key elements of the nazi regime who were transpalnted to the usa who was already praciticing a form of fascism despite the efforts of Roosevelt and JFK with their notions of taking America down a path much like Canada actually took.
America is steeped in a debate of whether or not socialsim is good - do you want to end up like Venezuela? When really, the rich paying a fair share of taxes, especially corporations, so that a system of benefits to help all people when they need it, is just a rational, good form of governance on the part of elected officals who are not beholden to corporate interests. But then again, how would this message get out into the American mindset when at a very large level, this communist threat is systemically shut down?
There is no real socialist country and any country that claims this, such as Venezuela, is operating in a form of unipolar defiance against American hegemony which would gladly bloodlet (vietnam, Iraq, Syria etc) your country to make a bloody example should the people within its own borders shake off the mentality of accepting being serfs to the modern day feudal lords who live off their captivity while the people fight to keep their shackles on, lest they become like the pariah state, Venezuela, which America's central and military intelligence agencies ensured would be created.
