Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

Socialism works great ............ until you run out of other peoples money!

Check out Venezuela as a recent example of the "benefits" of Socialism, and this in the richest country in South America.

Social Security isn't actually Socialism, as it is pre-paid into, and thus supported, via a Free Market system of business/employment.

Socialism, by definition, is the government controlling the means of production, business/employment, and all decisions relating to same.

Communism, is the government owning all the means of production, and the employees as well.

Socialism is simply considered to be an intermediate step to Communism, and can only be allowed/tolerated until its ultimate goal is achieved.

Several of the Nordic countries, like Sweden and Denmark are often cited as being successful Socialist societies, but they are in fact the most unregulated Free Market economies on the planet, just highly taxed to support public programs. Were they not such Free Market powerhouses, the money to fund the public programs would not be there, causing collapse just like the hundreds of actual Socialist constructs have always done eventually.

Now perhaps I should go check out Flynn's letter to see what started this "discussion".