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Originally Posted by willravel
Again, big assumptions here. First of all, socialism is not taking money from people who earned it and giving it to those who have not. It's the taking of some money from everyone just to make sure that no one is in poverty. If you make $1m a year now, you're not going to be making $60k a year in a socialist system. You're going to be making $800k. Hardly something to sneeze at. You still keep what you ear, you just earn a little less if you make a shitton of money. Not only that, but everyone works. No one sits at home getting money. That's not socialism. 100% employment means everyone earns their way.
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Applying that model of $1m to the Swedish system already mentioned with 66% taxes. That would leave you with $340k. As someone who is already annoyed by the comparatively small amount taken from my paycheck in the US, I would be furious if I saw the government take 2/3 of my money. Under those circumstances, what would be the point of working for more money, after all, the government would just take more money from you.
100% employment is great in theroy, but in 2005, the socialist welfare system in Germany hit a crisis when unemployment hit 12.5%, more than double the unemployment percentage in the US at the same time. People in Germany who lost their jobs and ended up in the welfare system were receiving funds that were comparable to what they were making when working, and many of them just lost the desire to go back to work. People on the welfare became overly dependant on the government's money and the German government found it was running out of welfare money.
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Originally Posted by willravel
Innovation has a better chance in a socialist system because you don't have to compete for money. You can develop innovative technologies without having to worry about living up to a cooperation's expectation. If you're working on a way to get 200 mpg, the oil industry can't bury you. That's real innovation, clear of the influence of selfish corporations.
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In the socalist states in europe where gas has consistantly been 4 to 5 times higher than in the US, I have not seen a 200mpg vehicle rolling off their assmebly lines. I'll grant you that their vehicles are more fuel efficient than the average american car, but they're also half the size, which really has nothing to do with economic systems.
What innovations came out of China in the last 50 years? What innovations came out of Russia during soviet times? What innovations have come from Cuba since the 50s?