He doesn't ignore them so much as refuse to recognize them for what they are.

Socialism and Communism fail every single time. When the people they are controlling become miserable, the way the Socialist/Communist/Collectivists retain power is to become dictators.

How many times do you have to see it?

Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, The Castro Brothers, Chavez.

You could argue the USA and the UK are the two most capitalist countries in the world.

How many dictators have we had in the last 200 years?

@BD66 NONE of them were Socialist. They were totalitarian Cults of Personality, like tRump would like to get going here...

@Beachslim7 "Capitalism causes the price of goods and services to go down. Socialism causes prices to go up." Talk about ignorant. The prices of goods are set by markets, by Supply and Demand. Yes, economic models used can influence S/D, but so does the weather!! No one is talking about eliminating market driven economies entirely. But putting basic services in the hands of a profit motive only leads to those services being unusable by the majority of a society.

@Beachslim7 Congratulations on understanding basic market forces!! Now, lets see if those same market forces apply to essential services like, say, healthcare. Do you think the same demand profile applies to things like, emergency care? Do you think that the same number of patients will arrive at the same time of day? No, they most certainly don't. But ER's still need to staff like they are as busy as they will possibly be. It's actually worse for ambulance services. Fun fact: most metrics that judge efficiency of an EMS system will just a system not adequately staffed if the service's overall active time exceeds 25%? In other words, 75% of the time, an ambulance crew should be available for the next call. So, does the typical Demand function when applied to Supply dictate the appropriate price point? No, it doesn't. This is how an ambulance ride will cost $1000 (or more likely more). Therefore, a market solution to healthcare is inappropriate. And by the way, Bernie Sanders is not a Communist, he is a Social Democrat. If you knew what those were, you would know the difference.

And most of that was to defeat Socialism, Communism, and other forms of Collectivism.

It would be true irony that the lefties in the USA would take us down the path of collectivism after we killed all those people to protect the USA from collectivism.

P.S. Neither Stalin, Hitler or Mao were Socialists. Just ridiculous...

@phxbillcee Hitler and his party literally took over the German Workers Party and changed the name to the National Socialist German Workers Party.

[en.wikipedia.org]

He called himself a socialist.

He behaved like a socialist.

so·cial·ism

noun

a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

What kind of twisted logic could you employ to believe Hitler was not a Socialist?

@BD66 Don't believe everything Hitler said. At the same time he paid lip service to the workers, he was in bed with the oligarchs and monarchists. He was USING them all. He was, above all, a right-wing fascist and totalitarian.

Before Hitler assumed power, he was aligned with the right wing German nationalists who fought armed street battles with the German Communists (in the 1920s). After he assumed power, he threw all the Socialists in concentration camps.

So no, Hitler was NOT a socialist.

@nicestuff He used Socialism to get into power, then once he was in power, he became a dictator and did whatever he wanted to do. That's a common theme. Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, The Castro Brothers, Chavez. Why do lefties keep falling for it?

@BD66 Again, don't confuse authoritarianism (your list) with social democracy. Look at present day social democracies in the Scandinavian countries.

Also, look at what Churchill, Eisenhower, Roosevelt, and other contemporary WWI-era leaders of democracies called Hitlerism - they called it FASCISM.

@nicestuff Don't confuse Scandinavian countries with Socialist countries. This is the definition of Socialism.

so·cial·ism

noun

a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

Scandinavian countries are not Socialist. You can buy stock issued by private companies in any Scandinavian country.

You cannot buy stock issued by private companies in Cuba or Venezuela.

@BD66 I thought you had more sense at this point. Beachslim I knew was woefully ignorant, I thought you had at least a bit more sense...

@BD66 I see what you are saying here. All of these Western democracies - Sweden, Iceland, the UK, the U.S., Germany, France, etc. have healthy portions of capitalism AND varying degrees of socialism (whether publicly controlled fire and police departments, public roadways, national defense ... etc.). These social democracies are capitalist - you are right about that. The Scandinavian countries I'm referring to are COMMONLY called social democracies. They have some more ELEMENTS of socialism than we do in the U.S.

It's a matter of details. I think some things are best left to free-market capitalism, while other services are best handled either by the government or not-for-profit. I think that's where the real disagreement is.

@nicestuff Exactly! UK, the U.S., Germany, and France are capitalist countries with safety nets. Some have more generous safety nets than others, and that's a good topic for debate.

Cuba and Venezuela are Socialist countries. It's a totally different story.

Do you live in Champaign, IL?
It's good to see another Central IL person on this site?
It's also good to see another open-minded person on this site.

Thanks. Yes, I'm in Champaign.

I'm religious on democracy. I'm not dogmatic on economics - or try not to be.

@nicestuff You know Champaign was famous as the location of a huge victory for atheism:

[en.wikipedia.org]

My brother and her son Dannel McCollum used to talk Champaign area fishing all the time:

[en.wikipedia.org]

Beachslim is a one trick pony and isn’t very good at it.

Hitler and his party literally took over the German Workers Party and changed the name to the National Socialist German Workers Party.

[en.wikipedia.org]

He called himself a socialist.

He behaved like a socialist.

so·cial·ism

noun

a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

What kind of twisted logic could you employ to believe Hitler was not a Socialist?

@BD66 And North Korea calls itself the Democratic Republic of Korea, so it's a democracy? He chose the name for its popularity. He was a right wing authoritarian, not a socialist.

@Beachslim7