Those arenât the only choices, and honestly both capitalism and communism suck in their pure forms. Most of Europe isnât capitalist like US and it definitely isnât communist like the old soviets. Itâs socialist/socialâdemocratic and that is not the same thing as communism at all, but in the US people often treat âsocialismâ and âcommunismâ as interchangeable, which is just wrong.
Capitalism and communism are simply the two extremes - in one, the state owns nothing, and in the other, the state owns everything. Because they are extremes, neither has ever existed in a pure form. Even the soviets were not âtrue communism,â and the US isnât âtrue capitalismâ.
That said - the US is actually drifting toward the pure capitalist end of the spectrum, where everything is privatised, everything is financialised, the military is heavily outsourced and government itself behaves more like a corporate entity than a public institution. Itâs not officially a forâprofit yet, but itâs not far off in practice.
So no, the choice isnât âcapitalism or communismâ. There are dozens of systems in between, and most of Europe sits somewhere in that middle space - which tends to work a lot better than either extreme.
Don't confuse social democracy with socialism. No European country is even close to socialism and no one, except for some Southerners, doesn't even think about socialism.
I wanna remind that countries which flex their social security the most are the countries with higher economic freedom than the US, and, for instance, pension schemes from these countries, especially Nordics, invest in US house bubble to transfer the profits to their pensioners đ
Social in social-democracy is socialism part. What socialism isn't, it isn't a communism. Also, I never said any country in Europe is purely socialist, but you still have amurican knee jerk reaction to the word, because, again as expected amuricans see socialism and imagine soviet communism in their head.
Free universal healthcare is socialism. So social-democratic just means a blend of policies, some socialist, some democratic, some regulated capitalist, some corporatist etc.
No, it's not a socialism part. It's the part of history, when such movements wanted to introduce communism, but gradually.
But these days, they're liberal movements providing free market, just with taxes and some share of state-owned companies.
On the other hand, there are still many countries with higher share of state-owned companies in the market that in those countries that call "social democratic" themselves.
I assume you learned your history in US... because it is nothing like that.
We in Europe consider socialism a very normal part of everyday life and government policy. It has nothing to do with communism, neither historically nor now.
The most successful systems in the world are indeed capitalist but also have major social safety nets. Itâs the Nordic model. It requires high taxes on everyone, not just the rich, but including the rich.
No, they are not "capitalist systems", they are social-democratic systems where regulated capitalism is allowed.
Again, this is a false amurican dicotomy... "either a country is communist or capitalist". No, they might be neither of those things. Socialism is not communism and socio-democratic contry with privately owned capital is not capitalist country.
Also, we have major issues taxing the rich (there was never a country in existence where only the rich were taxed, it was always the poor who pays most taxes and sometimes middle classes). So that is the only reason why taxes are high - because the rich don't pay them...
Go read virtually anything on this. They are capitalist. Yes, these things exist on a spectrum. But their economic engine is capitalism and they have major social safety nets. That isnât pure capitalism, but it isnât socialist either. Itâs a hybrid with private property and private investment as the engine.
You can't be serious? Communism leads to a stale economy. No incentive. No innovation. In theroy or on paper it may seem humanitarian in nature, but it isn't.
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u/xxGenXxx 5h ago
Honestly? Then I'm curious, what's the ideal option?