Mixed Market Marvels! Part 2!

As promised last week, today I will be talking about an incredibly interesting and important topic in our world today: Capitalism versus Socialism. Today, I will be talking about a mixed economy, and why I personally believe it is the only way for our country to operate.

This is my preferred economic system. You cannot have a full capitalistic or socialistic economic system, you must find a balance. Canada has done a superb job of finding this balance, and that is why we currently have one of the best economies in the world.

This is because there are some great aspects of a planned economy, and some great aspects of a market economy. In order to have a successful economy, you must incorporate all of these aspects appropriately. Canada has done this. There are many privately owned companies, such as Booster Juice, but there are many great publicly owned companies, such as the Canada Lands Company,  and many great publicly owned services, such as our health care.

A big difference between Canada’s economy and the United States’ economy is that Canada’s economy values collectivism more, and the US’ economy values individualism. This fact is greatly represented by the two health care systems of the respective countries.

In Canada, we have socialized health care. This means that the government controls it, and the money of the taxpayers goes towards it. This enables people who cannot necessarily afford health care to still be able to access it, if necessary. This means that it serves the public need, and the community.

Whereas in the United States, they used to have privatized health care, a mere year ago. Under this system, private companies control the distribution of health care. This means that the health care system might be slightly better, because of competition. Also, it means that the doctors and nurses earn more money, because they are not being paid by the government.

Although this all seems fine and dandy, there are also the cons to privatized health care. Over 15% of the United States is below the poverty level, so they may not be able to afford health care. If they contract an illness, or injure themselves, there is very little they can do about it without money. This is why privatized health care values the individual much more than the collective.

However, it is not all about these examples. The numbers speak for themselves. The unemployment rate in the mixed economy of Canada is 7.2%, as opposed to the 8.3% unemployment in the free market economy of the United States. As well, last year Canada has a GDP growth of 2.4%, and the United States had a GDP growth of 1.7%

Clearly, from all of the information mentioned above, you can tell that a mixed economy is clearly the way to go. If there was an appropriate balance between socialism and capitalism, our economy would surely strive to its fullest extent.