Posted on 05/14/2016 8:31:17 PM PDT by MarvinStinson
Around the world, nations that have been foolish enough to adopt socialist policies either collapsed or well on their way to doing so. Why, then, are so many in the U.S. enthralled with the idea?
Countries in direst economic shape have one thing in common: They rely on top-down socialist control to run their economies.
There are no long-term socialist success stories. None.
France, for instance, elected a socialist, Francois Hollande, as president in 2012. Today, France suffers a 10.3% jobless rate and 25% youth unemployment. Growth is less than 1%.
Brazil impeached Socialist President Dilma Rousseff for corruption, but her damage to the economy will last. As recently as 2010, Brazil was considered a bright star, awarded both an Olympics and a World Cup because of it. Rousseff’s massive borrowing and spending choked the economy, GDP shrank 3.8% and joblessness soared.
Venezuela’s nightmare. After the death of socialist dictator Hugo Chavez, his successor kept socialist policies in place. Today Venezuela is falling apart. Venezuelans now forage dirty streets for food — including stray dogs and cats.
Argentina’s economy was run into the ground by leftist populist President Cristina Kirchner. Newly elected centrist President Mauricio Macri has stabilized the economy, fixed the nation’s finances, and has returned to global debt markets for the first time since the nation defaulted 15 years ago.
Socialism is a failure, a brutal one. In its name, during the 21st century, millions of people were impoverished and disenfranchised, while over 100 million were murdered.
And yet, as Europe and South America move away from socialism, some in the U.S. embrace it. Polls show socialism is popular among millennials, and many young Americans support socialist Bernie Sanders for president.
Sadly, the left will never face the reality of their utopian central control’s failure everywhere.”
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
I do not see why power struggles within socialist enclaves are perceived as the perverse ideology “dying”. They certainly aren’t throwing it off in favor of any free market systems with small government. No; socialism still lives so long as the prince of this world that inspired it remains in power.
PS. Would the ascendancy of someone like Justin Trudeau be the death of socialism in Canada?
Maybe because it’s new here and we have some of the most educated dummies in the world
And more people will die....”for the greater good”.
I think one problem with analysis like this is that people have attempted to shift the meaning of the word socialism. Socialism is supposed to be a system in which the government owns the “major means of production” - airlines, railways, factories, banks, etc. However, some people have begun to use the word to describe systems in which the government does anything as minor as operating public sewers. The fact that a society has a program like social security does not make it a socialist society under the traditional meaning of the term socialist.
Too bad more “socialists” would not meet the same fate
A little leaven leavens the whole lump, as the saying goes.
A system where the government “owns” the “means of production” is one that is imbued with too much power and micromanages by default.
And always backpedals and tries to do damage control when the lies thereof are exposed.
Put at its most basic the Third Way is something different and distinct from liberal capitalism with its unswerving belief in the merits of the free market and democratic socialism with its demand management and obsession with the state. The Third Way is in favour of growth, entrepeneurship, enterprise and wealth creation but it is also in favour of greater social justice and it sees the state playing a major role in bringing this about. So in the words of one of its gurus Anthony Giddens of the LSE the Third Way rejects top down socialism as it rejects traditional neo liberalism.
UK Politics
What is the Third Way?
Tony Blair has committed his government to treading the Third Way. Both US President Bill Clinton and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder espouse the same doctrine. But what does it really mean? BBC Social Affairs Editor Niall Dickson digs behind the rhetoric.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/458626.stm
Every leftest I have ever heard speak on this issue, ALWAYS points out how social has worked in Scandinavian countries.
Ask them to check out Sweden’s tax policies.
First individual tax rate 30%. Starts at $2700 of income. Next bracket is 60%.
Social security/medicare is 30%.
Value added tax 25%.
And the kicker, corporate income tax is 15%.
They know that business fuels the economy. But with the individual tax, it is a wonder taxpayers have any discretionary income at all.
Ask them if they are ready to pay these rates.
lol they are not of course willing to pay anything!
only the rich should pay they would respond. They want to guaranteed minimum income for themselves so they can keep on doing nothing forever.
The so-called “third way” is merely a slippery slope slanting leftwards. Can’t be left socially without also being left economically.
What is being pushed in American (and still to a large part in Europe) is a highly regulated welfare state capitalism. It is so highly regulated that only large business interests can successfully navigate through the red tape without violation in order to bring products and services to market.
This results in a degenerate form of crony capitalism, and so it ultimately morphs into something very much like fascism.
We've all been told that fascism is rightwing and associated with nationalism, racism, antisemitism, etc. And there were plenty of fascist governments in the past where that was definitely the case.
What is metastasizing in Europe and America is a leftist form of fascism. It is not nationalist but globalist. It is not racist so much as race-baiting. It is not antisemitic so much as anti-Israel and anti-Zionist.
Because historians have failed to separate out the core of fascism from the outward facade, we are not allowed to speak of leftist fascism and so it continues to grow with liberal support even though liberals would be the last to openly support something that can only be called fascist.
Those who do not know history are bound to repeat it or simply say, “Those other people did it wrong. We will do it right this time!”
The truth is the truth. And so-called “welfare state capitalism” is just a new name for Lenin’s New Economic Policy, which is no less socialist than any other permutation.
And all forms of fascism are leftist. Mussolini was a communist at the outset of his political career and merely modified his belief system away from state atheism and de jure state ownership.
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