It was all the rage in the post world war two era. The Keynesian economic intervention model which bumped up demand and consumption in the market whilst simultaneously increasing employment, GDP and a structured standard of living. The market interventionist paradigm was blown out of the water by The Chicago School’s Freedman economic project and the London school of Economics’ pioneering economist Hayek: Free market economics was to replace interventionist demand side policies.

However in the UK, a product of the post world war two political consensus was the NHS [The National health Service]. It started a long run British tradition with regards to the health service: Universal coverage for all and free at the point of delivery.

In the US it has always been much more ominous. A pure Free market economic and cultural entity that makes Adam Smith smile in his grave and his invisible hand principle shake with excitement. The US political and cultural ethos is simple: Work hard, limited taxes and don’t depend on the Government for a safety net. The socio-political ideal that is projected is a meritocratic society where you get out of the system what you put in; and living the American dream, like so many immigrants, and becoming a “rags to riches” success in truly possible. But what happens when you work hard but still can’t afford medical insurance? Here we have the classic overlap between political theory and ethics.

Of course, to a Marxist, the above is pure nonsense. The economy, class stratification and ideological dominance maintain the dialectic between the “haves” and the “have nots”. The American right would not just say that the Marxist social and political dichotomy is nonsense, it is border line evil. It denigrates the individual liberty and free will of citizens in a society.

Thus we find ourselves in a contemporary political and cultural stalemate. The current Administration’s attempt to enact a more egalitarian healthcare practice, for those who are priced out of full Medicare coverage is tainted with the brush of socialism. Is the UK socialist as a consequence of a free health service? Some Americans may say yes! However Obama’s plan to put in place equilibrium structures that effect arguably the most fundamental aspect of human existence: current and future health is an ethically egalitarian principle not broad political socialism. Obama’s isn’t executing a centralised state in which labour is distributed equally and payment for services rendered is equal. Obama is simply proposing health coverage for the poor.

Americans ever scared of big government, it s a cultural endemic, have gone as far as to say that it is the beginning of a totalitarian regime. Granted the Free market is about choice. This even applies to private healthcare policies. However whether one has minimum coverage in health matters isn’t a break with choice, unless the only choice is to opt not to have any healthcare because one cannot afford it. Free market principles of competition and selection of goods should feature in healthcare but there must also be a foundational level that provides a universal level of service for those priced out of the market. If Obama was a socialist this would apply to the car market, it doesn’t. It only applies to the healthcare market where being priced out and not partaking in the market may mean death, not a restricted access to a top of the range vehicle.

America cultural, social and political hegemony in adherence to pure Free market principles and its stubbornness to see any flexibility, even in matters of life and death, is echoed by the 1930’s Frankfurt School and its thesis on Critical Theory: That “Mass Culture” and socially perpetuated ideologies like the Free market, capitalism and Democracy assert principles on society as natural conditions, refraining from producing a sense that any alternative is possible. The question therefore is do you have more or less choice with Free market capitalism or Interventionist polices? And what kind of choices are these?

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Email Tony Sobrado: tonysobrado@hotmail.co.uk

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