Socialism Is Dying Everywhere — Except The U.S.

[bripat9643]

When are Americans going to wise up?

Socialism Is Dying Everywhere — Except The U.S.

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.​

 

[Little-Acorn]

My wife was born and raised in China, came here in her 20s. She spent her formative years under Communism in China, which is different from socialism in only minor, technical ways.

She says that when she came here, she was astonished to find she had left a country that was rapidly losing its communist/socialist roots and increasing its prosperity hugely as a result, only to find herself in a country that was as rapidly GAINING socialist roots and curtailing its prosperity and freedom as a result.

She says that anyone who thinks living under socialism is a good thing, should try it first. She has been there and done that, and was very happy to get as far away from it as she could.

 

[MarathonMike]

Exactly. Capitalism is not a perfect system, there is no perfect system. It has just been proven to be better than any of the alternatives. It is easy to seduce the ill informed with the Siren Song of Socialism. It sounds so great "Free this, Free that! Everything is FREEEEEEEEE!!!". It's a lie to coerce the people to move all the power and assets to State control. Guess how that story ends.

 

[TemplarKormac]

I'm of the mind that socialism in small quantities is beneficial to America. As a supplement to, not a replacement, for capitalism. Never should it be allowed to exist by itself. But if far leftists want to install something more than a supplement, they will ensure that a scenario that's playing out in those countries will play out here.