I've been reading and writing on this forum for a while and I've noticed that many people in the United States honestly believe in socialism (or social state, which is similar). It's kinda surprising for me. I mean, you live in a country that is a world's superpower because of being a free-market capitalistic state since its beginning and that have economically defeated almost all the commies.

I personally live in one of those former commiestates and since I was born, I see the real effects of socialism. So I just wanted to clear some things up.

Socialist claim all people in socialism are equal and have basic needs provided by the state. Well, theoretically - yes. Practically - it's not so nice. There is a nice quote about socialism: all animals are equal but some are more equal. In fact, socialism makes 99% of the society an underclass or workers and 1% of the society their rulers. Moreover, that dream of having all basic needs provided is only a dream. In Eastern bloc countries, buying a toilet paper was a major achievement. All the time socialistic economies were suffering from lacks of supply. This: [link] is a Polish 'kartka' from the January 1989 - some kind of bond used by the government to regulate demand. Each Polish citizen was allowed to buy only as much meat/milk/toilet paper/gas/bread/etc. as was written on his/her 'kartka'. This particular 'kartka' allowed him/her to buy 2.5 kg (5.5 lb) of meat a month. Not only a citizen needs were limited by the government but also actually buying this small portion was quite hard. This is a famous photo from the 80s showing Polish meat shop: [link] You can see there is almost no meat - nothing surprising in socialistic economy. Another famous photo from Poland in the 80s: [link] Those people are not waiting for the newest iPhone, they're waiting for toilet paper. Lacks of supply in those socialistic heavens were so frequent that Polish people needed humanitarian aid from (that's ironically) the Western countries, described by the socialist as 'a hell where working-class is persecuted by the greedy capitalists'.

But it wasn't only Poland. Czechoslovakia was in top ten of the wealthiest countries in the world before IIWW, far wealthier than adjacent Austria, and because it was not destroyed during that war, in 1946 it were even few positions higher. In 1989 the same Czechoslovakia was a poor cousin of Mozart's motherland. Eastern part of Germany was much wealthier than the south part in the past but after II World War East Germany went under Russian sphere of influence while South Germany (Bavaria in particular) went under capitalistic American administration. Any effects? Bavaria is currently one of the wealthiest regions in Europe while former GDR is suffering poverty and social exclusion. Not to mention Ukraine, that, because of its great soil, was called 'Europe's silo' and under great socialistic management suffered from hunger.

What was the origin of that problems? Well, the most important one, alongside centralism, was development of a 'a new human being', as the socialists claimed. According to propaganda, it was a new man, proud of being part of a worldwide working class. In reality, there was no working class. That 'new human being' is currently called 'homo sovieticus' and used as a perfect example of destroying effects of the socialism to the society. People born and raised in Eastern bloc are unable and not willing to manage their lives. Although they supposedly are part of a working class, they actually do not work. It's a proverb in Polish: czy się stoi, czy się leży, tysiąc złotych się należy which means no matter if you stand, no matter if you lie (on bed), you still get your pay-check paid. This is a metaphor perfectly describing socialistic way of live - the state provided everything (starting with kindergarten for your kids, by free apartments ending with state pension), no matter if someone is working hard or not. Moreover, working hard doesn't give you anything more because all money you earn you spend on taxes to support those one who don't work. That's where do those lacks of supply come from - people soon discovered that there is no point in working. People are indifferent, they don't care about the others (there is no charity, no non-governmental organisations, no neighbourhood watch etc. - basically there is no private initiative), are obedient to the government and its actions. Public property is disrespected because if it belongs to the state, it belongs to no one so petty theft are common.


So, my question is, if you have seen socialism failing, why do you still believe in it?