Behold, the wonders of socialism. Video documentary of socialist Venezuela.

[chad3]

Originally Posted by Mason3000

- Our demographics are much different than Norway or Sweden's. That's not even getting into the actual size of the population which is apples and oranges. The fact is, democratic socialism can work if the population of the country is small, hard working, well-to-do, educated, civic minded people who're proud nationalists. Just like Minnesota or Vermont do so well. The United States isn't reflective of Minnesota or Vermont though, it's much more akin to California or Texas and will continue to move that direction as we follow down this pseudo-socialist spiral.

But those countries (think) differently than we do. Their Social-capitalist beliefs make them care about all citizens, care about worker wages, desire all citizens to have healthcare, ex.ex. If most Americans had that Social-capitalist respect we would not have huge problems with the poor, uneducated, and non-working citizens.

Social-capitalist beliefs would allow us to largely eliminate those poverty and non-working citizen problems. Conservatives and liberals would work together to reform welfare and give jobs (and respect) to most poverty stricken citizens, but instead our liberals and conservatives are fully divided. The liberals just want to give the poor welfare and Sect 8 (getting them dependent on government assistance), and the conservatives just want to eliminate all welfare (and throw them into a world where most of them could not find a job.)

- We don't practice pure capitalism at all. We practice the worst form of capitalism. A form that is collusion between the government and corporations. The problem with government regulation is that it's always corrupt. It's precisely government regulation that forces you to pay $15 a pill that people in other countries pay $0.05 for. If not for government regulation (read: collusion between government and corporations) you could just buy your pills online from a trusted foreign supplier. The government, spurred by millions annually in corporate lobbyist money, has created a law making it a felony for you to buy those pills from anyone other than their corporate partner, and only in the US and only at the price they decide on. That's government regulation! Now, instead of addressing this collusion against the people, the government and their partners in corporate insurance decided you don't need affordable prices, you need mandated health care to afford the ridiculously inflated prices. Under the ACA millions lost their insurance, tens of millions more had their premiums go through the roof, quality of care has declined and the insurance corporations that spent millions lobbying for the ACA are either A) making record profits or B) having the taxpayers refund their losses via bailouts. That's government regulation!

I agree with you 101%

But what is pure capitalism. It's where profits control actions instead of intelligence and compassion, its where the rich control government, its where there are no business regulations, ex.ex. American republicans desire free markets to control everything, they oppose all business regulations, have no problem with rich people like the Koch brothers controlling our government, and they oppose all assistance to the poor (and instead say let the free markets help them.) In some way republicans are pure capitalists.

But like I said I agree with everything you said 101%.

Chad.

[chad3]

Originally Posted by Tyster

Or maybe the US ranked a bit lower because we have a giant problem with gangs. And we have a huge drug war on our southern border that routinely crosses into our country. And we have a massive urban population that lives in a 'no snitch' culture that perpetuates crime, poor education, violence, etc... And we have meth labs in thousands of trailer parks. The list goes on...

In other words, we have a lot of challenges that tiny European nations don't have. And Australia doesn't have these issue either.

In other words our "Human Development" score really doesn't mean much. It certainly doesn't constitute an argument for adopting the European Welfare State.

Like my last post stated those top 5 countries are Social-Capitalists and they think differently than us. In those countries both liberals and conservatives respect all citizens, desire high worker wages, desire healthcare for everyone, ex.ex.

If most Americans had social-capitalist beliefs we could largely eliminate the problems you spoke of.

Libertarians have ideas of legalizing drugs to stop the gangs and violence, liberals have ideas of giving drug addicts medical treatment instead of prison terms, and republicans have ideas of getting every American to work. And if all those political groups worked together those problems could be largely eliminated.

But since we are liberals, conservatives, libertarians, democrats, and republicans (and not social-capitalists) we all fight and hate each other instead of working together to fix our problems.

[chad3]

Originally Posted by Tyster

And if you want to know why jobs have gone overseas look at our insane tax code and trade laws. We make it very hard to do business here. And no, Capitalism doesn't 'make people homeless'. That's nonsense.

It was Bill Clinton and a republican congress that moved most our jobs to China by passing the free trade deal.

And we do have insane tax laws. Today we give tax breaks to corporations that move jobs overseas (we actually give them tax breaks on the expenses they use to move the jobs overseas.)

Senate Republicans Vote Against American Jobs By Blocking Bill To End Outsourcing Tax Breaks

[Tall Traveler]

Originally Posted by greywar

Yes, because SOMEHOW its the combination of demographics that determine if it works.

In the pretend world of brainwashed political correctness, demographics don't matter. In the real world as we have known it for millenia, yes.