well, i disagree that we cant mix the two. socialism is basically, you pay extra tax so Everyone gets healthcare and education.
government runs essential companies (power, water, banks, phones, emergency services..)
couldnt tell you exactly how it failed in america, how it failed in iceland (heh, started calling it little america 10 years ago)
was, all the government run companies were sold to install a "free market" claiming that everything would be so much cheaper.
well, what happened was that the banks were sold to people, that borrowed from the banks themselves, to buy them.. so you can see what sorta "free market" it really was.
pay went up and lots of folks got richer for awhile.
price of everything went up too and the poor got poorer.
mostly what the "newly rich" did, was try to outfight the old wealthy clans and buy as much shit as they could, all with loans.
everyone in the country was cheered on to take loans for everything (now available to anyone!)
by the government as well (crony capitalism eh?) and they built a lot of gilt and fancy shit.
but like i said, all built on loans, essentially a bubble that got bigger and bigger and then just burst.
havent really bothered to keep up with this and abroad, but it looks like thats pretty much what happened in the west.
and most similarily to the states (iceland was even called little america the other day by some economist on some show (forget whom or where, found it on some icelandic newsserver i occasionally look at)
in iceland anyway, it was all fueled by national pride and ignorance.
here´s the thing though, the free market did fuel the country into becoming a top living standard country (still is , mostly)
but it only did that because the country never gave up socialism fully, kept the free hospitals and education (just had to make alot of cuts now to pay for the loanbubble)
and the free market was a benefit, the only problem was, they gave all the support to the big (supposedly to help the small (lol the Trickle down effect..mofos..)
and gave up essential companies that the people owned before (top service at cheap prices now 3x the price and bit worse (its a small country, people would shit if it was alot worse, the 3x in price is hard enough to swallow but there is just so much to worry about now, thanks to trying out capitalism so fully lol)
but before this happened, the market was stifled by crony clanism. certain families owned everything and still do (just lost alot of power, though regained much, the future is uncertain for them though)
and you needed to kiss the right ass to amount to anything, even if not much.
...
i think possibly, if they had installed the free market, focusing on helping small businesses instead, helping the community thrive, diverting more money to help the poor, instead of the rich.
and never sold the Essential companies.
it might have made for a nice place to live..why help the poor? well, its either that or build more prisons and graveyards.
why small business instead of big? well, the easier it is to start your own company, the more idea´s get support. (with some rules into place to limit the potential fuckup lol)
do big companies, really Need support?
what do i mean with helping small business? money? no, but around here, businesses need to go through alot of regulations that cost alot of money, all made so to limit competition to the rich.
free market makes sense there.
limiting the power of money, with money, there is always going to be corruption ( always gonna be rich and poor and poor sucks in comparison) but its ridiculous when 2% of the population make all the rules (in their favor)
ehh, at least it gets better everyday (the brighter light just makes the shadows deeper, though difficult to tell yourself that sometimes)
