The difficulty with painting in broad historical trends is that it only allows for the broadest of conclusions. I would certainly agree that the degree of outright socialism within the movement in Europe for "social democracy" guarantees a fall, and that the fall will be accelerated by the imminent demographic changes that ensure that a decreasing population of the young and affluent will be strained to support the population of the elderly and the formerly affluent in the manner to which they've become accustomed (mostly by skimming off the top). Importing the non-affluent and non-assimilable is not a solution but a compounding of the problem.
There is an upside to all of this, and it is simply that socialism fails when it has nothing left to steal. A gradual slide toward socialism means a gradually decreasing surplus necessary to support it. This is a pain level that the "progressives" may not wish away. It is entirely possible that they might learn from it at some point.
Where I depart from Nyquist's gloomy considerations is that at least in certain very significant places capitalism is still very much alive and well, offering opportunity and creating wealth for those willing to forgo theft for merit. I would agree with Nyquist that capitalism's real problem is that it has been so successful that it has created a level of economic surplus beyond the remotest fantasies of the most luxuriant satrap in old Persia, and that this looks to a socialist as if it were an inexaustible natural resource ripe for redistribution along more "equitable" social lines. Those obsessed with doling out golden eggs will happily kill the goose that laid them and proclaim themselves the benefactors of men, at least until the eggs run out, at which time the egg shortage will be somebody else's fault.
The question really becomes whether the socialist theorists are parasites smart enough not to kill off the host or too stupid to stop the hemorrhage short of suicide. On the one hand there are ample dire warnings of failed attempts at socialism and are likely to be more coming up in Europe. On the other, these folks don't seem ever to learn.
But I remain optimistic. Perhaps it's only that holiday cheer, but I also think there's a large element of Carter's "malaise" at work as a result of fat and self-indulgent media that used to be society's gadflies and now have become an insufferable, nagging dead weight. To hear them prattle we're not only headed to Hell in a handbasket but deserve to do so. That's what the Off button is for. Merry Christmas, all!
I think the author forgets that Patriots are Patient... we wait for socialist to kill themselves before crushing them.
Re: Mr.Nyquist, the phrase that leaps to mind is: "We see what we look for."