Home Depot's co-founder says the rise of 'socialism' is making people too lazy, fat and stupid to wo

That’s not really relevant. The relevant part is that socialism can work. Not all capitalist societies thrive, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. That is the point… it is assumed by many that socialism automatically = bad.

 

Somehow relevant:

 

Am I the only one that noticed that @studegator is a drive by poster? He creates a controversial thread and never actually engages in the conversation

 

It’s not assumed that it’s bad, it is assumed to be inferior to capitalism, which it is.

I also disagree on relevance. I will assume that Marshall Plan funding was all re-build, so set that aside. Germany has had very stable population over the last 50 years. Maybe 10% growth over that time. The US and NATO have provided for the vast majority of the defense of Germany. Upon unification, East Germany provided a huge amount of relatively cheap labor which fueled their manufacturing industries. The benefit of this was two-gold; cheap labor to make exports more competitive, as well as boosting the former East German consumption with better incomes than they had in the former USSR.

So Germany has had a lot of economic advantages that many other countries have not had. Did they/have they made it work? Absolutely. Could it be replicated with the same level of success in a country that was growing at a much faster pace and had to provide for their own defense without a cheap (and also self sustaining) workforce? Most likely not. So I would maintain that Germany’s presupposed economic situation is very highly relevant.

 

The best economic system is what I like to call “cappy socialism”. Where the worst of capitalisms excesses are constrained and a broad social safety net is implemented. For instance a healthy first world economy should offer its citizens basic universal health care coverage preferably though a single payer