I've enjoyed the conversation in this forum recently surrounding the merits of socialism versus capitalism, and I'd like to weigh in.
Countries such as Cuba, Venezuela and the former USSR are one side of socialism, and most would agree it's been a dismal failure for them.
The other side of it is represented by countries like Finland and Denmark, which are consistently rated in Transparency International’s top five of countries in the world perceived to be the least corrupt.
The key to these countries’ success is that they have taken the best parts of both capitalism and socialism and combined them in a way that intelligently balances between the needs of the greater population and incentives to drive economic growth. No system is perfect, of course, but the greater accountability they have achieved there would suggest that they are on the right path.
Some conservatives, while acknowledging this success, claim that it cannot be replicated here because it's a factor of the relatively small populations of these countries. I don't buy that. Larger economies of scale enable efficiencies which lead to more affordable healthcare and more affordable everything, really, if we just had the political will to make it happen.
David Harris, Salt Lake City