It’s also more of a dictatorship vs functioning democracy distinction than a capitalism vs socialism distinction
The soviet union had most of the things on the list, but that’s because it was a dictatorship, it was never run by the proletariat, it still had an elite and that elite was particularly nasty.
From what I gather, Cuba, while not perfect, is in a much better place in terms of human rights, and has to feed its people despite sanctions. And we have several nations still practicing capitalism that aren’t dictatorships.
Of course the US conservatives have done a lot to make people conflate socialism with authoritarianism and lukewarm liberals with socialists.
Cuba is still pretty crap I’m afraid. Like with the USSR, you’re not exactly fairly electing your foreman or your governor. Emma Goldman would call it state-capitalist.
The reason the old Marxist parties called themselves social-democrats, before they sold themselves out so bad that the name changed meaning, was because it was conceived that socialism would involve democracy in every facet of social life rather than just electing a parliament.
The Leninists and reformists have failed to bring about this dream, but it is a fair dream to strive towards. Class society and the state (including alleged democracies) restrain people’s control over their own lives and turn us into mere order-takers content with scraps. The struggle for more than mere scraps and the struggle for self-management and autonomy are in truth the same struggle, which is the struggle for that dream.
Most of them also slowly follow the US, e.g. Germany. In Germany we had like 3-4 decades after WWII, where i would say capitalism was bearable. Meaning realtively high median income, people could actually afford houses, some kind of wealth distribution (high taxes on high incomes, at least some kind of wealth tax, but on the other hand free, decent education and full subsidy students life, when you go to university and you or your parents can’t( afford to support you in this time).
Then neoliberalism hit in the 90s… And we really started to fuck every social thing in Germany to become “Exportweltmeister” in the early 2000s.
Same here in UK. Party stopped mid 00’s. Nordic countries seem pretty good at wealth distribution though. How Norway protected its oil wealth should be studied in schools.
We’re all following the same pattern, the wealth distribution got completely fucked during covid and it hasn’t slowed down ever since. We’re just 5-10 years after you, but I’m scared of the direction especially the UK have made and no proper parties seems to be willing to dismantle the elites yet.
Capitalism will always make wealth trickle upwards, unless you either tax wealth harder than yields or taxes death to oblivion. Personally I’m in favour of 100% inheritance tax after the first 400 thousand euroes, as that’s the most feasible way to transition into a liberal merit based society rather than a nepotistic society based upon how wealthy your parents are which is dominating everywhere today - Including my beloved Denmark.
It’s also more of a dictatorship vs functioning democracy distinction than a capitalism vs socialism distinction
The soviet union had most of the things on the list, but that’s because it was a dictatorship, it was never run by the proletariat, it still had an elite and that elite was particularly nasty.
From what I gather, Cuba, while not perfect, is in a much better place in terms of human rights, and has to feed its people despite sanctions. And we have several nations still practicing capitalism that aren’t dictatorships.
Of course the US conservatives have done a lot to make people conflate socialism with authoritarianism and lukewarm liberals with socialists.
Cuba is still pretty crap I’m afraid. Like with the USSR, you’re not exactly fairly electing your foreman or your governor. Emma Goldman would call it state-capitalist.
The reason the old Marxist parties called themselves social-democrats, before they sold themselves out so bad that the name changed meaning, was because it was conceived that socialism would involve democracy in every facet of social life rather than just electing a parliament.
The Leninists and reformists have failed to bring about this dream, but it is a fair dream to strive towards. Class society and the state (including alleged democracies) restrain people’s control over their own lives and turn us into mere order-takers content with scraps. The struggle for more than mere scraps and the struggle for self-management and autonomy are in truth the same struggle, which is the struggle for that dream.
Most of them are ‘social democracies’ that are a mix of socialism and capitalism. It doesnt always have to be left vs right.
Most of them also slowly follow the US, e.g. Germany. In Germany we had like 3-4 decades after WWII, where i would say capitalism was bearable. Meaning realtively high median income, people could actually afford houses, some kind of wealth distribution (high taxes on high incomes, at least some kind of wealth tax, but on the other hand free, decent education and full subsidy students life, when you go to university and you or your parents can’t( afford to support you in this time).
Then neoliberalism hit in the 90s… And we really started to fuck every social thing in Germany to become “Exportweltmeister” in the early 2000s.
Same here in UK. Party stopped mid 00’s. Nordic countries seem pretty good at wealth distribution though. How Norway protected its oil wealth should be studied in schools.
We’re all following the same pattern, the wealth distribution got completely fucked during covid and it hasn’t slowed down ever since. We’re just 5-10 years after you, but I’m scared of the direction especially the UK have made and no proper parties seems to be willing to dismantle the elites yet.
Capitalism will always make wealth trickle upwards, unless you either tax wealth harder than yields or taxes death to oblivion. Personally I’m in favour of 100% inheritance tax after the first 400 thousand euroes, as that’s the most feasible way to transition into a liberal merit based society rather than a nepotistic society based upon how wealthy your parents are which is dominating everywhere today - Including my beloved Denmark.
What boils down to wealth distribution and letting wealth concentrate, but with fancier words. You need a balance of the two.
I’m beginning to think we need a balance of both ideologies in general. Or else this left vs right bullshit is just going to get worse.