Re: What is a Centrist or a Moderate ?
Zarf: "1: How can you say that a Europe-style socialist system (national health care, welfare system) is the same thing as a much less extreme, yet still not laissez-faire, system (taxes and subsidies on certain goods, or "sin taxes," so to speak)?"
Because I don't view any government as having any moral basis. They are all funded by extortion and ultimately seek to enslave their respective population. The nature of government is that of a law factory; it would be out of character if the government were not, in some manner or capacity, authoring, approving, and enforcing laws; it's why small government will inevitably result in big government. Statism is comparable to paraticism, that is the government exists as a parasite on the most productive members of society. Socialism is the politico-economic philosophy of Statism, no matter which flavor you prefer.
"2: Socialism and capitalism aren't the only two economic systems in existence. Not by a long shot. They're just the most publicized systems."
Wrong, they are the only two worth speaking about. Economics ultimately boils down to the question of whether you believe the means of production and distribution should be privately owned and operated, or publicly owned and operated. Either you have private property, or you don't. The rest is methodology. Communism, Marxist-Leninism, Fabian socialism, Stalinism, Fascism, or what have you all produce the same end result: A totalitarian state with total economic authority, aka socialism. It is the trend of every government, and the symptoms in the United States have been appallingly obvious since the late 1800s, and especially since the New Deal.
In reality, capitalism is the only economic theory under which economic calculation is possible, so technically, there is no such thing as the science of economics without capitalism in the first place.