Socialism, anyone?

It's become quite the fashion for right-wing conservatives, as their desperation mounts, to hurl words like "socialism" and "socialist" at the new administration. Somehow, they think, we're supposed to be appalled or frightened, as if a cradle-to-grave society, fueled by skyrocketing taxes, was the path Comrade Obama was intent in putting us on.

So, when I sat down to breakfast the other day with The New York Times Magazine, intending to read the cover story --about the way Obama thinks we will live after "The Great Recession" -- I found myself drawn instead to an inside feature, "Learning to Be Sort-of Socialist." I'm glad I let myself be diverted -- proof yet again that one of the best things about print media is serendipity (when you go looking for one thing but accidentally discover something else).

As someone who's never been to Europe, I've always had something of a fuzzy notion whenever I've read of the quality of life or way of doing things on that continent, knowing there have got to be considerable differences, beyond language, in the history and culture that define England, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the rest.

So it was with mild curiosity that I read Russell Oberto's piece, from the perspective of an American who's lived in The Netherlands for 18 months. Titled "Going Dutch: How I Learned to Love the European Welfare State," Oberto begins the piece with a startling number: 52. That's the rate at which his income is taxed. Before you gag on your oatmeal, stop and consider that's pretty much on par with what we pay here in the U.S. when you combine federal, state, local, Social Security and property taxes. (The Dutch rate of 52 percent includes Social Security.)

In any case, Oberto, a professional writer, points out the benefits he receives as a Dutch resident, including government payments to spend on vacation (over and above paid time off), child care and schoolbooks for himself. Parents with small children also can get government reimbursement for up to 70 percent of day care costs.

The Netherlands has universal health care (where nearly all general practitioners make house calls to the infirm and the elderly) and a pension system that covers about 80 percent of all workers. A family of four pays about $388 a month for health care, with co-pays, and including dental -- roughly a third less than a comparable policy in the U.S.

Also, about one-third of all dwellings are part of the public housing system, in which qualified people get apartments at below-market rents. Unlike in the U.S., there is no stigma attached to living in public housing because the government believes there is a value in keeping a mix of income levels in the units. As an example, Oberto cites a psychologist who lives in the same apartment he's had since he was a student.

So what's the down side? Oberto points to a soul-sucking sameness that stems from a homogenous population.

He cites the tradition of limited business hours on Sunday -- where it's virtually impossible to pop into a shop or a cafe -- as an example of the conservative Dutch system, rooted in the mid-20th century collision of the workers' movement and the church. Most shops are closed because there's a social consensus in support of a day of rest. During the week, most shops close by 6 p.m., precisely when people leaving work might want to patronize them, the author says.

"A broad social-welfare system works if everyone assumes that everyone else is playing by the same rules. Newcomers, with different ways of life and expectations, threaten it. This is one reason the recent waves of non-Western immigration here have caused o smuch disturbance. Can such a system work in a truly multiethnic society?"

He continues:

"...one downside of a collectivist society, of which the Dutch themselves complain, is that people tend to become slaves to consensus and conformity."

I've only hit the highlights of this provocative article, which delivered a lot of information I didn't know about Dutch history and the details of the contemporary social-welfare state. For anyone else who wants to explore the differences between capitalism and socialism, I recommend it highly.