American Capitalism – Not What You Thought of It

While Israelis groan under the cost of living, the time has come to break the news to all the socialists taking pleasure in criticizing the United States: in America, things are better.

Socialists, of course, are the leaders and patrons of the poor and oppressed around the world. However, with the onset of the latest economic crisis, they have been unable to restrain their outbursts of joy and happiness, smearing every possible newspaper with hundreds of articles celebrating the alleged breakdown of the American capitalism.

They did not let the fact that millions of people lost their homes and savings interfere with their celebration; apparently, it was the right price to pay to watch the hated evil empire in agony.

Even the fact that the countries suffering the worst damage, far greater than what the American economy has suffered, are actually prominent socialist countries has not given them a moment’s pause. So what if Greece is collapsing, Portugal is crashing and unemployment in Spain is about twice the rate seen in the U.S.? The most important thing is that the capitalist jungle overseas is going down in flames and the facts cannot keep us from dancing.

Rent Control

Nevertheless, the most interesting fact the socialists neglect is that this jungle exists solely in the imagination of those who create a demonic image of the U.S. and those who eagerly consume the horror stories without checking the facts.

The United States is not Sweden, and there are big holes in the social safety net it provides its citizens; nonetheless, this network is alive and well, and it renders considerable assistance to tens of millions of less fortunate Americans daily. It is time to briefly tell its story.

“After verifying that the owners of the building had carried out comprehensive renovations, including upgrading the elevator, we decided to approve the increase of monthly rent at $3.50 per room. If you would like to appeal the decision, please contact your local rent control board as soon as possible.” Roughly, this is the message I received several months ago in a letter from the New York State Office of Rent Administration Operations and Services.

In New York City alone, nearly a million apartments are rented out under close supervision of the state, which hardly allows landlords to raise the rents. Tenants are entitled to protection and property rights, and, in many cases, apartment owners pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to move out old tenants who were blessed with a ridiculous rent in a prestigious area of Manhattan.

Higher Minimum Wage than in Israel

The state of New York, like other states, also drastically subsidizes health insurance for hundreds of thousands of families. And no – these are not only the poorest families, for they already enjoy health insurance funded by the federal government (Medicaid).

Like the poor, all retirees over 65 years old and all suffering from significant physical or mental disabilities receive coverage through the Medicare program. To clarify any misunderstandings, these programs are not part of the new initiatives under Obama’s health reform. Medicaid and Medicare have existed in the United States for decades, as part of the expanded Social Security Act that President Lyndon Johnson passed in 1965.

This law also provides a host of additional benefits and guarantees a minimum income for the underprivileged, retired and disabled; it also ensures unemployment benefits to those who have lost their jobs. Other laws also regulate the minimum wage, which currently stands at $7.25 an hour. This is greater than in socialist Israel, despite the fact that the average cost of living in America is significantly lower.

Some of the U.S. states have even set their minimum wages at more than eight dollars an hour –– higher than the federal guarantee.

No Connection between the Monstrous Image and Reality

In the United States, higher education is subsidized as well, although the cost is still high. While in an elite private university, tuition amounts to thirty or forty thousand dollars per year, many of America’s best universities, such as [University of California] Berkeley in California or [University of Michigan] in Ann Arbor, Michigan are public universities.

Each state in the U.S., without exception, runs at least one public university complex and subsidizes tuition there at a rate between 70 and 100 percent, depending on the institution and the economic situation of the student.

America is far from being a bed of roses, and it still contains many harsh social injustices. However, between this reality and the monstrous image of a parallel universe governed by the rules of pure unrestrained capitalism lies nothing but the fertile imagination of a few frustrated socialists.

The United States is still a nation of about 310 million people, none of them starving to death; even the poorest of them enjoy a standard of living of which most of the world only dreams. This is the country that the largest number of people love to venomously criticize, yet it is also the place to which the largest number of people are dying to move. In too many cases, these two groups prove to be exactly the same people.