Social Welfare Programs
as Distinct from Socialism
Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment Insurance, Minimum Wage, Veteran’s Benefits, Worker’s Comp, Pell Grants, Food Stamps and Medicaid are examples of social welfare programs. They are not, and in fact are very distinct from, socialism despite what Donald Trump and his minions are saying at the Republican National Convention.
Scandinavia has strong well-developed social welfare programs, so do France, Germany and Italy. These are all capitalist countries; they are not socialist nations. The United States compares poorly with many of our peer nations in the extent to which we use social welfare programs to help and assist American citizens. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/countries-most-generous-welfare-programs-110004319.html
The highest percentages of spending on social welfare programs are on the elderly and on health care. The US has a somewhat lower (but fast growing) percent of its population who are elderly than do many European nations. https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.19.3.204 The US spends a lot more on health care as a percentage of its GDP than do all other nations, primarily because we pay far more for doctor visits, hospital stays and prescription medicines. https://www.statista.com/statistics/268826/health-expenditure-as-gdp-percentage-in-oecd-countries/ But we still do not have universal coverage; nearly 10% of Americans lack coverage; many live in Southern states, which have blocked implementation of the Affordable Care Act for their working poor citizens. https://wallethub.com/edu/uninsured-rates-by-state/4800/#red-vs-blue
Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden has proposed expanding programs like unemployment insurance, parental leave, childcare, elder home care and health care – areas where the US social welfare programs fall particularly short.
The US taxes its citizens far less than do most other developed nations. https://www.oecd.org/tax/revenue-statistics-united-states.pdf However our personal income and property taxes are higher, while our corporate income and VAT taxes are lower or non-existent.
Our income inequality is very high. https://data.oecd.org/inequality/income-inequality.htm Our GDP growth rate has been very low (less than 1.5% per annum) for the last decade. https://www.gfmag.com/global-data/economic-data/countries-highest-gdp-growth China by comparison averaged 6.5%.
Our nation’s states with the fastest GDP growth per capita were Washington, Oregon and California, followed by Utah and Nevada. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/economy/growth