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Re:Media Owned by Wealthy Are Quick to Tell You Wealth Taxes... by mikepurvis on Thursday October 22, 2020 @03:35PM (#24862426)
Doesn't the truth of this hang on what the definition of "success" is? Is ability to produce the occasional Mark Z or Jeff B "success"? Or is success just an upward slope on broad economic indicators like GDP?

I think the picture looks quite different if you look at things like quality of life indicators— and then it's (surprise!) nations like Denmark and Switzerland which top the list. I suspect it would be even more stark if you were able to measure class mobility— the number of people who have at least +x% inflation adjusted net worth over their parents at the same age.

So yeah, it's a little bizarre (and a very US-centric view) to just assume that "success" on a national level and socialist policies are mutually exclusive.

Re:Media Owned by Wealthy Are Quick to Tell You Wealth Taxes... by tick_tock_tick on Friday October 23, 2020 @02:03PM (#24872141)
Denmark and Switzerland are objectively capitalist systems and have little to no state control of the means of production.
Re:Media Owned by Wealthy Are Quick to Tell You Wealth Taxes... by mikepurvis on Friday October 23, 2020 @09:12PM (#24876074)
Okay, but that's moving the goalposts. For the purposes of this discussion, most Americans who pull the alarm on "socialism" do so when things like wealth taxes (or single-payer healthcare, or free tuition) are mentioned.