Quote:
Originally Posted by Raev
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I read this and I just don't know what to say. Are you guys really incapable of seeing the gaping logical flaws here? "Socialism is good! Capitalism is bad! Oh, you tried socialism and it didn't work? Well Socialism is Good, therefore YOU are the problem." Logically, Northern Europeans are happy in spite of their Socialist governments, not because of them. Meanwhile, free market economies work anywhere: Chile in South America, Hong Kong and Singapore in Asia, Switzerland in Europe, etc.
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You're creating logical flaws by oversimplifying what I'm saying. You really see this as being the result of capitalism or socialism being so simplistically good or bad and not as a result of culture?
You would agree representative democracy is a pretty good system, yes? Well democracy only works in societies where the culture permits it. It requires a sufficient amount of respect for the rule of law, education, empathy, and a sense of civic responsibility in order to work properly.
So do we take the fact that healthy democracy refuses to take root in Africa or Middle East as evidence that democracy sucks? No. Likewise, socialism requires certain cultural attributes in order to function properly. I'm saying I wish our culture was different just as much as I'm saying I wish certain aspects of our system would be more socialist. For example, I wish Americans weren't so fucking selfish and individualistic, and honestly it's those values I take issue with more than some stupidly simplified abstraction of "free market" or "capitalism".