Socialism in North America: tried since 1620 and failed, but it will work now, right?

Throughout the world where capitalism isn’t the system there isn’t a higher standard of living. One could argue maybe looking at China advances but they instituted a form of capitalism built around slave labor & threats. No system is perfect nor can it be

Didn't realize Trump was trying to turn us socialist

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No system is perfect nor can it be

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No. Neither system works on its own.

Individualism and collectivism are the yin and the yang.

They are interdependent forces that balance society when each contains and enables the other.

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Socialism in North America: tried since 1620 and failed, but it will work now, right?

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As long as they feel they will get bailed out by the rest of the nation, they'll keep trying it out. Until they "succeed" or America is dead...which is also success to them.

It's interesting to hear my gvnr hochuls take on wanting to tax the rich more. She is trying to earn the socialist that the goalposts have been moved far enough. Unfortunately our education system never taught people what they will get from what they are asking for.

Democrats have built something they are losing control of.

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China

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Most people in China are poor, they live like dogshit.

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Most people in China are poor, they live like dogshit.

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And THIS needs to be highlighted in all civics classes - the ONLY way a socialist society can ever survive is to subjugate huge portions of its population in a manner that they can do nothing but obey 'the man' in order to live while the oligarchs who keep the wheels greased are living in luxury.

I recommend the book "The Great Idea" by Henry Hazlett - I understand it has since been re-issued under a different name. I read this book back in 1957 while at LSU and it opened my eyes to the basic faults of socialism.

Until then, I had had no exposure to any sort of 'governmental' experience, and I have to admit that my personal thoughts on the process was for something that would be called 'socialism' = I saw nothing wrong with it because I was a person who could not conceive of someone taking advantage of others for personal gain.

Socialism is the toss dive when the opponent has 8 in the box.

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Didn't realize Trump was trying to turn us socialist

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You would love and vote for him if he were....

This is sort of clickbait-y. What the Pilgrims attempted was not some Marxist project. They didn't even have the secular vocabulary for something like 19th century philosophical concepts like communism. I'd argue that these groups sought to maintain the deeply spiritual community of feudalism in an early-modern, post-feudal civilization. Feudalism was full of faults and contradictions but the fixed nature of society led to deeply engrained communities center of Christian faith.

I think there is something admirable in this reoccurring theme of early American Protestantism coming to terms with the deeply isolating - both interpersonally and spiritually - nature of early-modern secular (market capitalism) and Christian theology. I think you see a consistent questioning of the individual relationship with God, individual relationships in economic utility in these European migrant movements then the altogether new Christian movements developed in North America.

I see this less as a communist style anti-capitalist critique and more of an argument that communities cannot thrive when everyone is an individual actor only looking out for their self interest. It reduces the community to nothing more than a marketplace where units of production interact with one another. There is no substance to grow the Christian body in that environment. And to be sure, when you look around the country today...I think they may have been more right than wrong.