Ok, Democracy. Now What?

I hope I have been able to convince you that a Democracy is the ideal form of government. If we make societal decisions according to societal happiness we need to know if the people are going to be happy with each decision we make. The only way to do this is to ask the people... in other words, take a vote.

Capitalism or Socialism? "Conservative" or "Liberal"?

Frankly, it doesn't matter. I see each of these systems as a means to an end. A tool that may (or may not) maximize our happiness. I know it would be convenient for our ethical system to mindlessly determine the way our government should work in absolute terms but that's not reality. We will have to think through each decision and how it impacts societal happiness. There is no room for being intellectually lazy in a democracy.
I think we can still take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of each system and make some generalizations from a utilitarian point of view:

	Capitalism	Socialism
Strengths	High Economic Efficiency Encourages Property Stewardship	Ensures Equality of Opportunity Allows for Collective Action
Weaknesses	Reduces Equality of Opportunity Prevents Collective Action	Clunky/Reactive Economy Discourages Property Stewardship

Economic Efficiency. Pure capitalism excels at maximizing GDP and ensures the largest sum total of wealth is generated for a given society (albeit poorly distributed wealth). It utilizes the self interest built into human nature to accomplish this.

Equality of Opportunity. Socialism ensures that everyone has the same chance to do well in life as everyone else. Capitalism, by contrast, tends to make is easy for the rich to get richer and makes it hard for the poor to get the jump start they need to make a good wage.

Property Stewardship. Capitalism, again taking advantage of selfish human nature, ensures there is a steward for everything (i.e. the owner). Homes, cars, land and property of any kind need to be maintained or taken care of. Socialism doesn't naturally ensure this maintenance gets done. We humans tend not to take good care of things if we don't have a vested interest in them.

Collective Action. Imagine a meteor large enough to extinguish human kind is on a collision course with Earth. Preventing the meteor from landing would require extensive resources from humanity. In a capitalistic society, a charitable fund would have to be established to pay for the effort and many people would fail to contribute thinking "someone else will do it". In a socialistic society, however, the government could acquire whatever resource it needed to ensure Earth's safety.
Simply put, some projects have necessarily public consequences and are only successfully if everyone cooperates. Full societal cooperation is only realistically achievable through socialization and/or regulation.

• Global warming & carbon emissions
• Water table monitoring and action
• Meteor monitoring and action
• Pollution of natural resources
• Over-harvesting prevention (deforestation, game hunting, fishing)
• Etc, etc, etc.

Some Generalizations & Conclusions

Informed voting is a moral imperative. If only a few vote, then a democracy becomes a functional oligarchy. If everyone votes but does so uninformed, we have a society that makes poor decisions. In order to maximize societal happiness, you need to be an informed voter. Voting in an informed way, then, is a moral virtue. Don't throw away your voice through whim or silence.

Education is the most important thing to socialize. Having an informed voter-base is essential to the core of a properly functioning democracy. And you cannot be informed without at least a basic education. Without an informed voter-base, decisions can be made haphazardly. Equal and easy access to education, then, is a necessary democratic backbone. This alone justifies public (socialized) education to me.

Lean to Capitalism in times of scarcity. Capitalism is very good at being efficient with whatever limited natural resources an economy has to work with. I think this is a good starting point for gauging how capitalistic or socialistic our society should be. In times of scarcity, we should socialize and regulate less. In times of plenty, we should socialize and regulate more. I am suggesting that there is not only a balance between socialism and capitalism, but that it is a moving target. Something to think about as you head to the polls.