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Re:A Wonderful Socialist Life by mikeash on Sunday August 12, 2018 @02:22PM (#17745632)
So, the proof that the Soviet lessons of socialism apply to Western Europe is that all socialist countries eventually suffer from it. The proof of that is that all of them have. If they haven’t, they will.

That’s just circular reasoning! All socialist countries fail because all of them will fail if they haven’t already. What?

What’s the deal with your Mississippi statement? A quick search shows Mississippi with a median income of about $20,000, and France (for example) at over $30,000.

Re:A Wonderful Socialist Life by 1996 on Sunday August 12, 2018 @02:43PM (#17745767)
It is based on physical reality: over promising limited resources can't work. Socialism is based on this premise. Unfortunately, it can't work in the long term.

I would be happy if I am wrong on this one example: I do not wish anyone to be poor. However, wikipedia says median income for MS is 40k now, cf https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_incom...

While for France, it is 20k according to http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=ilc_...

My numbers may be wrong, as other sources say it would just be above the 12 poorest, see https://mises.org/wire/if-sweden-and-germany-became-us-state...

If France median income is not lower than the poorest US state, but on par with the bottom 1/5 of the states, that still speaks volume. It's burdened by a system that can't work.

Re:A Wonderful Socialist Life by mikeash on Sunday August 12, 2018 @03:22PM (#17745961)
I don’t see why socialism must overpromise.

You appear to be comparing Mississippi’s median household income with France’s median individual income. The former is of course much higher.

Re:A Wonderful Socialist Life by 1996 on Sunday August 12, 2018 @05:03PM (#17746403)
My mistake, and I am happy I made it. France is only in the 20% poorest US states, instead of being poorer than the poorest.

However I'm not sure you should celebrate that.