“Regardless, this willing “dupiness” is necessary for a socialist economy to work. Everybody has to willingly value society more than themselves in order to work at the slave-like tax rates necessary to finance a communist/socialist state. The Swedes, Norwegians, Finns and Danes on the whole are more than willing to do this, while the Greeks, Russians, Venezuelans…and pretty much the rest of the world are not. This is why “sorta socialism” works best in Scandinavia…and pretty much nowhere else.”
Hey, what about Venezuela and Zimbabwe? If it wasn’t for the wreckers and hoarders, those societies would be the Swedens of their respective continents. Their problem is they haven’t killed enough people to fully implement the program, but they’re working on it.
Socialists are selfish and greedy.
If they really were socially conscious collectivists instead of just greedy socialist slobs wouldn’t they be looking around to see what the State needed most, and then elect to get training or an education in what would benefit the state as a whole the most?
Instead they get ridiculous Lesbian Poetry Studies degrees that are a large net loss to the education fund.
Do that enough times and there is no money left for real educations.
Sewer truck drivers pay taxes and refill the education fund, Lesbian Poetry Studies majors don’t.
‘To each according to his need, from each….oh look, a bunny!’
The most horrible capitalist who creates real jobs and who pays real taxes is much more of a benefit to society than these sanctimonious parasites who are a net drain on society.
Captain ! What the hell are you talking about ? I saw a really good story on Frontline, on my local PBS station, that showed how Obama’s adopted birthplace of Kenya was traditionally a hugely successful Socialist society BEFORE the white imperialist showed-up with their shiny trinkets. The Frontline story illustrated how the tribal hunters would kill a gazelle and s-h-a-r-e it with the whole tribe. Everyone got fed (although the tribal elites DID get the meatiest ribs to eat). And then after a filling meal, they shared each other’s wives and children for sex. Socialism REALLY WORKED for all the African tribes!
Then, the next Frontline episode did a story about how peaceful, environmental, and ethical, all the Native American tribes were … before the white man arrived with their shiny trinkets … and smallpox blankets. Hey ! It was ON PBS … and the narrator had a really soft, soothing voice … so it MUST be the TRUTH !
The main input is level of corruption.
The more corrupt the country, the quicker the slide into socialist depravity
The US is in those crosshairs now, with half population propping up the most irredeemably corrupt and statist political cabal in history.
Upon victory 49% will villainize, then milk the other 51%. That’s when the wheels fall off, when capital and innovation flees.
During famine and war in the USSR, the political class enjoyed an opulent lifestyle.
Breshnev lived like royalty and the 20’s politburo cavorted about in Rolls Royces.
When times are good, statist strike with enlarging the tax base and their power.
When times turn bad or slow down, as in now, the statists get nasty and double down on their growth killing policies.
Will we continue to support intellectually corrupt politicians? Will we allow PC to neuter us?
Coercion surely results. The US is ripe for that under the spectre of a Clinton/Dem Congress kleptocracy.
Our cabin boy is stuck at stupid for the time being. The Laurentian elites are bellying up as we speak, lapping up defense and shipbuilding contracts.
Soon the CPP will be thrown down the rabbit hole, financing money losing “public enterprise.”
IOW, the economic reckoning is near in the US and getting closer here, much as it did under Chretien.
When this thing breaks, the end of the status quo of big debt entitlement economies, it will break big, and bad.
Remember, the Soviet Gulag archipelago got a quick start right after the “revolution,” and flew under the radar for some time.
I’m just saying.
Socialism appears to “work” in Scandinavian societies largely because of the windfall of money from North Sea oil. That windfall is concentrated primarily in Norway, but it finds its way into neighboring countries like Sweden and Denmark. However, with the precipitous drop in oil revenues, that windfall is rapidly drying up and the housing bubble in Scandinavia shows signs of imploding.
Socialist more than anything love to murder defenseless little babies in the womb, and now have taken up the hobby of killing old people.
Everything anyone needs to know about communism, can be learned from reading ‘Animal Farm’. Napoleon is the only one who matters, Boxer goes to the knacker when he is no longer useful.
Very true. When the Norge run out of other people’s money(OPM) the socialism will collapse.
Nobody values society more than themselves or their children’s best interests.
They may conflate society with their or their children’s best interest, but as soon as the chasm between the two entities becomes obvious they will choose for themselves over “society”.
That is why socialist states descend into Thugocracies.
If society, such as it is, competes with instead of furthering individual self interest, the state realigns individual self interest with society by putting a gun to the individual’s head.
Voilà! Retaining a place in this life and society quickly becomes the individual’s primary interest.
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.
Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage.
Attributed to Alexander Tytler
I’d venture to guess that our society is in the ‘apathy to dependence’ phase.
Jean: bang on and applicable imho. I would argue though the Roman and Egyptian Empires lasted far longer than 200 years.
Dennis: I agree oil largesse is of great benefit to socialists. It provides the stealth they need to put the public frog in their warming pot during good times.
Two points however: first, our socialists seem to think killing that energy golden goose won’t affect prosperity. They’re wrong of course, but don’t care because they’re playing with house money with lots of LIV sheeple to buy their bureaucrat bilge. Laundering middle class money is the new SJW normal.
The peasants are revolting? Yes, they are considered quite revolting to the corrupt kleptocrats. Transferring from the poor to themselves is the new rage.
Second, Venezuela has lots of oil revenues, so does SA – it hasn’t stopped them from imposing poverty, authoritarianism and misery on their people, proscribing violence, or exporting their terror. It goes back to corrupt political cultures. Socialism can never prevail or sustain itself unless they tolerate the rich to confiscate their wealth. This never lasts long; others’ money always runs out.
The millennials wish to find out the hard way (ie not take advantage of wiser others’ experience). Too bad we have to go along for the ride.
It will be too late five years from now when confiscatory tax rates applies to millennials prospering at their careers.
Meanwhile, this boomer is cashing in for as long as the free ride lasts. Dues are paid, now show me the money.
wrongo me boy. Yes Norway floats on oil, but that does not help the rest of the Scandinavian countries. Sweden, Finland and Denmark have a long history and deep rooted work ethics, and that is why they have not yet collapsed. Sweden has a robust aircraft and auto industry, despite a 9.5 million population. Finland, with 5.5 million pop., has the largest elevator company in the world, Kone. But Finland and Denmark are starting to struggle under the socialist burden, and both are looking for solutions. I coined a phrase some years ago, “that socialism destroys exceptionalism”, and after visiting that part of the world several times, I am convinced of it’s accuracy. In the Nordic countries they work their allotted hours, and no more. If they want extra $$$$, they earn it doing part time for cash.
Hey, don’t forget Kulaks! Farmers with more than one chicken are also to blame you know.
So many great comments above, don’t know where to start.
They did not coin this, but I am sure my relatives in the old Soviet Union could attest to the accuracy of the say, ” The government pretends to pay us and we pretend to work”.
The emasculation of the Swedes is certainly worth a study. What are the causes of the slow, incremental loss of societal testosterone? I mean, back in the early 70s, is it likely that the human responses which gave rise to the term “Stockholm Syndrome” could have occurred in any other city but its namesake? And when you think of it, doesn’t the entire country seem to operate as if it was infected with a chronic-tending-to-terminal version of this complex?
I can’t help but wonder that perhaps Canada is only a generation or two behind. In our last federal election sixty-two percent of the votes cast were for three socialist parties that made no secret of their support for the immediate and massive admittance of refugees with only cursory checks and balances, the diminution of speech and property rights, and the confiscation of wealth via public debt of generations present and yet to come.