,
5 tweets,
1 min read
Read on Twitter
Socialism.
So much talk about it, but it seems many have different ideas about what it really means.
This makes any good-faith conversation impossible if people disagree on very fundamental premises, such as what words actually mean.
So much talk about it, but it seems many have different ideas about what it really means.
This makes any good-faith conversation impossible if people disagree on very fundamental premises, such as what words actually mean.
The dictionary definition of socialism is government ownership of the means of production, which entails central planning, price controls, and other forms of intervention.
But Bernie Bros and AOC Acolytes proudly wear the "socialist" label even though they're not exactly agitating to turn the United States into Venezuela, but more like the highly redistributive economies of Scandinavia.
Their opponents gladly play up this conceptual mismatch, using it as a scare tactic even though the likes of Norway and Denmark enjoy free markets that are, by some measures, even more free than the United State's, just combined with lots of welfare financed by taxation.
Meanwhile, you keep hearing that Sanders and AOC say that capitalism is the disease, but without capitalism, how does Norway and Denmark pay for the social welfare they so crave?
(I think some placements in the matrix are questionable but the overall concept is pretty useful)
(I think some placements in the matrix are questionable but the overall concept is pretty useful)
