If All The People Of A Country Are Able To Avail Equal Medical Help, Education And A Chance At Enterpreneurship Is It Called Socialism?

[Highbrow]

Why do democratic countries still have elite schools and hospitals where people of poorer backgrounds are deprived of them?‎

[boxtops]

It's called money

[woofgang]

Its called equal opportunity. I came from a poor background, so did my DH. We earned everything, including scholarships to good schools. Our parents weren't wealthy but they worked hard themselves and encouraged us to do the same.

[Sharingan]

Nothing can ever be totally equal but things can be fair and mostly in Britain they are. Even if you redistributed wealth a few moments later it would be unequal again. People also like choice, I think the NHS is great, but if I had cancer for example and could hurry up treatment by a few days I would probably be worried enough to do so. It doesnt mean the present set up deprives people of anything very much.

[atalanta]

Think about this: if you choose to send your children to fee-paying schools, and if you choose to have private medical treatment, you are in fact paying twice, and saving the country a vast amount of money. The country could not afford ( could nowhere near afford) to educate all those children or treat all those patients in public facilities if they closed the private ones. Also, those schools and hospitals earn a great deal of money from foreigners wanting to use them.
It all boils down to freedom of choice. Which is another definition of democracy.
You vote with your money.

[modeller]

Arguably the most unequal country in the world was the USSR.
They selected children from nursery school onwards which established an elite in all subjects from dance , athletics to maths and physics. This in turn governed where you and your family lived. What schools , or hospitals you and your family could attend. All this information went in a 'passport ' type book which did not allow you to leave the country but was in fact your identity book. It even governed what car , or anything in short supply , you were allowed to buy.
Everybody who wanted to progress in their career had to be a member of the Communist party.
I haven't been to Russia for some years but I am told much of the above still applies.

That's the reality of socialism. Similarly in China if you cant pay much medical treatment is not available and as in Russia education and accomodation is strickly allocated.