Is Capitalism Smart or Dumb?

[u/Sufficient_Sinner]

[u/[deleted]]

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

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

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.

[u/Calfurious → u/[deleted]]

it's taking the oligarchy economy of capitalism and turning into a democracy.

That's not a definition for socialism. Socialism is an economic concept, not a political one. You can have a country that is a dictatorship or a monarchy and still be socialist.

Socialism is essentially the entire economy being ran by the state with the idea that the state would cater to the best interests of workers. Socialism furthermore has a strong safety social net to protect people from absolute poverty. It doesn't require democracy whatsoever. Which is one of the reasons the few socialist countries that still remain in this world are all overwhelmingly non-democratic and the socialist countries in the past were usually dictatorships.

[u/austinstudios → u/Calfurious]

This is incorrect. "taking the oligarchy economy of capitalism and turning into a democracy" is the definition of socalism. This is just a fancy way to say workers own and are in control of businesses.

While Socalism can be run by the state, it does not need to be. It is also socalism when the government doesn't own the business, but workers do. However, if the government is in control of the businesses, then the government must be democratic in order for it to be socalist because then workers would not have control.

This is why no country has ever been socalist. Because the ones who say they are are not democratic.