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0 pointsjquery8y ago0 comments

Because socialism has been proven to fail, over and over and over. Roads are not socialism. Roads have not destroyed societies like Venezuela or Cuba. Socialism is when the government decides private property is illegitimate and it fails every time it’s tried. Some amount of socialism may not kill the host but it’s a thing to be feared and wielded carefully not lauded.

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fjsolwmv8y ago

Banana and cotton plantations are capitalism. The US is wealthy because it extracted it's wealth from the suffering of others worldwide.

jqueryOP8y ago

> Banana and cotton plantations are capitalism

and? I never said capitalism didn't require any guardrails. Stop straw-manning other people.

> The US is wealthy because it extracted it's wealth from the suffering of others worldwide.

Why is Japan wealthy? South Korea? European countries? Is this the social justice theory of economics? There's not much evidence for that theory. It's pretty clear that capitalism (with appropriate guardrails and the rule of law) is wildly more successful than its alternatives. I think you're trying to argue that capitalism is beside the point and it's war and oppression that creates wealth. That's obviously nonsense.

alphonsegaston8y ago

You’re right - war and oppression are tools used by Capitalists to secure and grow their wealth.

Japan, South Korea, and side swathes of Europe are wealthy because of their positions as client states in the American Capitalist Imperium.

geofft8y ago

And US military intervention, economic sanctions, etc. in Venezuela and Cuba aren't to blame at all, I guess?

The US has spent trillions of dollars over the years trying to convince everyone that socialism can't work by making sure it doesn't work. It seems absolutely unscientific to ignore that.

In any case, I am not asking about the abolition of private property, just about government-mandated charity at scale. Let's say you get a marginal tax of 100% on salaries over $200K, and on wealth over $10M. That's more private property than most Americans will ever have in their life. Is tbat proven to fail? Where and how?

dragonwriter8y ago

> Because socialism has been proven to fail, over and over and over.

Except for Leninism and it's descendents, where has socialism of any kind been tried and failed?

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