re: Economists use beer as measure to document failures of socialism

The market is smarter than any of us. That's the genius of capitalism.

In a capitalistic system (even those with malevolent actors, monopolies, trusts, etc), one does well, generally, being of service to others.

In a Socialist/Communist system, one does well by sucking up and being of value to the authorities.

Of the two, one is clearly freer and far more of a meritocracy than the other, which is the antithesis of a meritocracy. It is, at a minimum, corrupting by nature and, typically, utterly corrupt.