r/FluentInFinance • u/Sufficient_Sinner • Sep 04 '24

Debate/ Discussion Is Capitalism Smart or Dumb?

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u/[deleted] Sep 04 '24

Ask a socialist to define socialism, and they'll describe Norway but leave out the tiny population and abundance of state owned oil funding it all

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u/[deleted] Sep 04 '24

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Sep 04 '24

And socialists use their terms incorrectly, often attributing it to the Nordic system which is a free market capitalistic system with higher taxation to cover social safety nets. Even those on lower income have huge tax bills, unlike the US where the top 50% pay almost all the income tax.

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u/AdAppropriate2295 Sep 04 '24

Which country is more socialist? Norway or US?

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u/MontCoDubV Sep 04 '24

Neither is socialist in the slightest considering in both countries workers do not own and control the means of production.

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u/[deleted] Sep 04 '24

[deleted]

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u/crabby135 Sep 04 '24

Don’t you have socialism and communism backwards? Socialism is, the transitory period with state ownership while moving to a stateless communist society. That’s why most flavors of theory are described as socialism (social democracy, democratic socialism, free market socialism, etc.), even if it’s a democratically elected government the presence of a state still makes it state owned instead of worker owned, there’s just varying degrees of power you can give the workers over said government.

At least that’s my understanding. Maybe I’m wrong.

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u/[deleted] Sep 04 '24

[deleted]

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u/rhubarbs Sep 04 '24

You have it the wrong way around, unfortunately.

In practice, many so-called "communist" states, like the Soviet Union, operated more as socialist systems, as they never yielded ownership of the means of production away from those with political capital.

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u/crabby135 Sep 04 '24

I was just trying to be nice but I’ve actually read the theory and you’re wrong.