The far-right seeks to label the moderate Biden/Harris ticket for the presidency as being far-left. The dreaded word being loosely bandied by President Donald Trump is that their agenda promotes “socialism.” Trump recently called Biden a “Trojan Horse for socialism,” decrying his candidacy as a potential apocalypse for America.

Political hot air aside, extremism in any form is generally not a good thing. Unfettered capitalism creates a system of narrow wealth concentration with miserable working and living conditions for the masses. True communism destroys the incentive for production and results in poverty for most citizens living under its yoke.

Within the spectrum of world governments, the healthiest nations embrace capitalism but enact socialist initiatives to improve their societies. These programs are adopted to curb the pitfalls of an unregulated economy; a key in accomplishing this is fair taxation.

According to the World Economic Forum, the 10 countries identified as having the highest quality of life in the world in order are Finland, Canada, Denmark, Australia, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Iceland/New Zealand (the last two tied). All 10 are developed nations with capitalistic economies, however, that is only part of the story. All have strong socialist safety nets in place for their citizens.

The three main indexes used for this satisfaction rating are: “Basic Human Needs, which includes medical care, sanitation, and shelter. Foundation of wellbeing, which covers education, access to technology, and life expectancy. Opportunity, which looks at personal rights, freedom of choice, and general tolerance.”

Conspicuously absent from this list of healthy countries is the United States with the world’s largest economy. The simple reason for that is our government’s policies allow for extreme wealth concentration with inadequate funding being directed toward social policy. We are good at creating wealth for a limited number of people, but our government is a miserable failure when it comes to providing a quality safety net for Americans.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO, has seen his net worth increase somewhere between $60 billion and $75 billion thus far this year while 40 million Americans filed for unemployment. Can that kind of individual wealth concentration in that amount of time be good for the health of any society?

In 1980, Americans had the highest standard of living in the world. That same year, we elected Ronald Reagan president, and the tax system in America was rewritten substantially lowering tax rates upon the wealthy. An accelerated transfer of wealth to the upper echelon of society commenced while the U.S. standard of living began to decline. We are currently ranked number 15 in the world (so much for the trickle down theory).

The tax changes enacted when Reagan came to power have continued to this day through Republican and Democratic presidencies. Additional tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans were enacted under the George W. Bush and Trump administrations. Until these regressive tax policies are reversed, the middle class will continue shrinking in the United States while the super-wealthy will bank additional millions and billions.

Trump’s hyperbole aside, we need more compassionate socialism if we want to improve the lives of most Americans. Three key areas that should be addressed by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris when elected are further reformation of our health care system, stabilizing and enhancing Social Security benefits, and increasing equal access to affordable education.

Entire columns can be written regarding these three objectives, but recall that candidate Trump promised he would improve health care for all Americans, and that it would be significantly cheaper. He’s a pathological liar, but ask yourself, has any of that promise come to fruition during his presidency?

Americans were “misled” by a con man in the last election. As they say, “Fool me once shame on you — fool me twice, shame on me.”

Effective reform of health care is essential to erase financial and racial inequities in the United States. Having the most expensive medical care in the world in a country that was ranked 29th worldwide in health care access and quality in 2018 provides compelling proof change is needed, while the impacts from COVID-19 have further emphasized the depth of this need. All countries ranked in the top 10 for quality of life have national health care for their citizens, and the impacts from coronavirus confirm our need for uniform health care that is independent from employment coverage.

Our Social Security program also needs tweaking if it is to continue to provide the current level of benefits to retirees beyond the year 2035. Minor adjustments to the current tax rates will ensure continuance of the existing benefits, but focus should also be placed upon increasing support levels because the system is inadequate.

Social Security offers more income stability to low-income earners who frequently lack other pensions or retirement options. About half of all seniors receive 50 percent of their income from Social Security, and for one in four it is 90 percent. A compassionate society would improve retirement benefits for its elders, allowing them to live their final years in dignity with reasonable security; otherwise, why call it Social Security?

Equal access to quality education that is affordable also promotes a healthy society. It’s given lip service in America, and more attention needs to be given to improving the fairness of our education system while reducing student debt for higher education.

Improving America’s social safety net isn’t something to be feared as socialism — it should be embraced for the well-being of our nation. The Bezoses of our country may have fewer billions to play with, but the standard of life will begin to improve for the majority of Americans if we elect the “average Joe,” and return to a more progressive system of governance and taxation.