Quote: Sal Paradise "Name me one Socialist country...'"
To be honest you could have stopped there. There’s no such thing... even where we get closer, like Cuba, we’re going to take a ‘no true Scotsman’ approach to the argument, just as you would with struggling/failing authoritarian right wing regimes. And it isn’t like the rest of the Caribbean is full of thriving economies.
Name me one purely capitalist country where the standard of living is even a little bit higher than an ‘average’ well-regulated country, where government plays a significant role in safeguarding the welfare of its citizens e.g. Sweden/Germany/UK/Belgium/Switzerland etc.
Singapore and the US, maybe. But even then, they are highly de-regulated rather than unregulated. We’re arguing along a spectrum... and we both want Sweden.
There’s so much to be positive about in the UK, historically and currently (as well as plenty of appalling stuff). I think the good comes more from stuff like the foundation of the co-operative movement... some others (straw man alert) might credit the playing fields of Eton. Not many of us see as desirable, a complete end to private property or to a self-defeating abandonment of all sense of shared societal responsibility in the pursuit of profit.
rl
