this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2023
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Without our social safety net in Belgium the vast majority of people would fall back into poverty, would be unable to afford medical help, would have no way of ever retiring.
Not only that, because of the way our social safety net is designed, it is beating capitalist systems of unemployment benefits, healthcare and insurance at efficiency too, with a lower average cost (for the state) of case handling.
A social safety net is not peak socialism but it is the thing that our socialist comrades died for in the past which is now preventing capitalist ghouls to completely destroy our society. The successes of this system get attributed to capitalist efforts to keep our Western European society at the top of the world in terms of living standards, while its flaws get attributed to lazy socialist profiteers.
It is socialism that made sure this country has some way of helping the poor and unfortunate instead of letting them die of poverty. It was the union who started this system by allowing their members to contribute a small part of their wage to distribute among the unemployed in times where unemployment meant starvation. It was socialist effort who made sure the sick got treatment without them being able to afford it.
Capitalism = unequal wealth except that the vast majority of the wealth is held by <1% of global society while the rest of us fight for bread crumbs. It is socialism who wants to abolish this barbaric system to distribute the wealth equally.