@edgarblythe,
edgarblythe wrote:
You brought in Karl, not me.
I know right wingers have to slur democratic socialism by conflating it to communism, but I don't take the bait and argue about it because we both should know how dishonest that is, as old as we are.
True, but I was responding to your remark about Groucho Marx.
Socialism involves expanded government intervention in the lives and economic choices of all citizens . That can work in small very homogenous societies with strong cultural values, such as Sweden, but even there they alternated with free market governments, and the government control of the economy is very limited. In most other applications Socialism yields stagnant economies. with little growth or innovation. and poor living standards for all. In many others like the states of the former Soviet Empire and more recently Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela it has yielded tyranny and real poverty for all.