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whistlecrackers | 8 years ago

Every socialist country is or will be a cautionary tale.

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dang|8 years ago

Generic ideological tangents may not destroy countries but they sure make internet forums suck. This is not what we want here, so please don't post like this.

MadSudaca|8 years ago

Yet we still don't learn the lesson after all the countries that have bit the dust.

Angostura|8 years ago

How are you defining socialist country, here?

ptaipale|8 years ago

I'll let whistlecrackers make his own definition, but I'd say:

- problem is not that a country has some socialist policies

- problem is not that a country has a party with "socialism" in its name in the government

- problems definitely start to appear when a country has an autocratic government, whether it was originally "socialist" or "bolivarian" or whatever; an autocratic government then typically adapts some sort of "socialism" in its name in order to justify the autocracy, the choking of free markets, the political redistribution of resources, ad-hoc top-down responses to the economic problems that eventually come up, and the suppression of free media to hide the increasing problems.