Socialism - Venezuela and Northern Europe

Also, anyone who puts up Denmark as a successful, fulfilling example of socialism is only regurgitating some headline they read at some point.

They have obviously NOT researched the country because anyone who has, knows it’s socialism is ruining itself...

I think the trouble with the pundits on the right is they quickly point to Venezuela as the poster child of socialism, while the left retorts with the standard "what about Denmark"?

Luca comments to the usual suspects on the Kim Jong Un thread were met with the, and I'm paraphrasing, "well of course socialism failed in Venezuela...they were corrupt. Now look at Denmark!"

This is frightening if true........, todays headline on DRUDGE. 

 GALLUP: 4 IN 10 AMERICANS EMBRACE SOCIALISM

The definition of the term "socialism" is getting increasingly vague as its adherents increasingly try to push it on us. My understanding of socialism is where government has control of the means of production, distribution and exchange of economic output.

The adherents try to dismantle the historical distaste for socialism in two ways that I have seen:

1). They define socialism only in its extreme cases, e.g., communism where everything is under government control with its implied associated political repression. Anything short of that, they claim, is not really "socialism."

2). They claim that any service government provides - such as fire and police services - is actually socialism so, the argument goes, what kind of far right neo Nazi would object to that?

So actually there are gradations of socialism, in which government takes control of certain industries to a certain degree and it becomes a matter of opinion when you call it "socialism."

Speaking for myself, as government takes over more control and puts more regulations on the practice of medicine, they technically don't have total control over the profession but it's clear that you don't need to have complete control of an entity in order to f - it up substantially

I remember in my younger and more foolish days actually engaging in a discussion with Wabash about the topic and when I stated opposition to the concept he said something to the effect that "Oh, so you don't want a fire department to protect you?"

It's hard to argue with an intellectual giant like that.

I agree with MDDad. Polls like this are meaningless unless they actually tell you what the questions were and defined socialism for the respondents. I'd actually wait to see how they feel when they start paying taxes, then see how far to the left of Karl Marx they remain. It cracked me up a few months ago when my 28-year-old daughter looked at her tax return and said "Whoa, I didn't know they took that much out."...............Luca

As an aside to the topic & comment to the above, if the entire US population had to do their taxes at the end of the year & then write a single check for the total, there would be a tax uprising.  Payroll deductions every week are such an evil way to collect taxes and help dumb down the citizenry who applaud these interest free loans to the government as "tax refunds".

One of my sons is self employed & not incorporated.  He figured out that it was in his best interest to not pay his taxes quarterly and instead pay a small fine to just write 1 check to the feds & 1 to the state each April.  It literally will make you want to vomit when you see one of your children have to write a check for that amount, knowing how much of it is wasted.

Not exactly... they do embrace what they’ve been told is socialism, but they’ve bought a lie.  They embrace what they believe is “fair” like “wage equity” and such.  They don’t know what socialism is.

If she wins, Buffalo deserves to go to hell with the rest of their bison ancestors.