Quote:
Originally Posted by Mantus
Socialism is a fairytale - the poor person's version of heaven on earth. It can never work in it's purest form because we are human and humans are violent, petty, naive, and greedy.
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Socialism is just as real as capitalism.
And it's happening outside my window. It's even happening in the United States, despite what people will tell you.
If socialism is the poor person's heaven on earth, then capitalism is the rich person's heaven. Neither really exist in pure forms.
I'm assuming by "socialism" you mean a "socialist nation." If you mean that, then I suppose it does have a mythical aspect to it, but, then again, so does a free-market nation. There is no such thing as a free market, but that doesn't stop people from trying to apply those ideals. The same goes for socialism.
Generally speaking, and to reiterate what Charlatan was getting at, socialism + capitalism = mixed-market economy.
A mixed-market economy is the norm for a vast majority of nations around the world, though they're set up in varying degrees.
Both the U.S. and China have mixed-market economies. To call the American economy free/
laissez-faire and the China economy communist/socialist/planned is to use misnomers.
You can look at extreme examples of command economies like in Cuba and North Korea and point out how dysfunctional they are. That's easy. But that's not necessarily what we talk about when we talk about socialism. Plus, there are indications that Cuba is doing what China did, which is shift away from a command economy to a mixed economy by opening up the market to capitalist ideals. This doesn't mean they're going to dismantle all the socialist stuff.
---------- Post added at 08:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:11 PM ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlatan
Further, systems pushing for absolutes (socialism or capitalism) are less likely to succeed than ones that seek a balance of the two.
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It would seem that the most stable nations are those with deeply entrenched mixed economies.