Latin America
Related: About this forumNorway Is Far More Socialist Than Venezuela
Matt Bruenig January 27, 2019
As the United States begins its effort to depose Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro, the discourse is plagued by the perennial question: what is socialism? Venezuela helps illuminate this question because many pundits commit to the claim that Venezuela is socialist before committing to a specific definition of socialism. This unfortunate order of events then requires them to retroactively identify specific things that they say make Venezuela socialist, but then those things exist in other countries that they refuse to call socialist.
The weekend provided two prime examples this. To start things off, Bryan Caplan wrote, in reference to those claiming Venezuela is not real socialism, that:
Link to tweet
Caplan does not elaborate on how he distinguishes the Nordic countries from Venezuela or even what he considers socialism. But anyone who objectively compares especially Norway to Venezuela would find the two countries are quite similar and that in fact Norway is far more socialist under conventional definitions of that term.
More:
https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2019/01/27/norway-is-far-more-socialist-than-venezuela/
Editorials and other articles:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016225085
Ferrets are Cool
(21,063 posts)we would do well to emulate them.
David__77
(23,218 posts)And of course there are many varieties of political socialists. I think that the state should guide the economy and control the main levers of the economy while leveraging private initiative. Socialist? Capitlalist? Perhaps both.
GatoGordo
(2,412 posts)Norway is Capitalist with socialist elements.
Socialism cannot exist in a vacuum. It needs wealth that capitalism creates. Good intentions do not pay the bills.
Venezuela is an example of what happens when socialism loots the national treasury. The Chavistas have turned the economic envy of Latin America into a shit show.
EX500rider
(10,531 posts)Socialism: State ownership of the means of production.
What the Nordic countries have is capitalism with governments that provide strong social safety nets, which is not socialism.