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Originally Posted by Alan
economic equality and collectivist tendencies DO raise the standard of living in much more efficient ways than capitalism does.
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No argument there. Socialism may very well be the best system for nations that are struggling. On the other hand, for advanced, first-world nations, I can see socialism being a proverbial step back rather than a viable alternative.
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In less than half a century, they became the second power of the world, and the first nation to go to space.
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True. In fact, Stalin may have been nothing short of a psychopath, but he rebuilt a country that was completely devastated by war in under 10 years (and the cult of personality that replaced state religion was pretty amazing, too). That's pretty astounding, even if his methods were highly immoral. However, the monarchic rule of Peter the First, and Catherine the Great, similarly brought Russia out of the Dark Ages, and made her a major player in Europe and Asia in a similarly short term.
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Socialism just works, plain and simple.
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What I'm getting at is, so does just about everything else, under the right circumstances. Consider this: any legitimate system of government will work if it has intelligent, organised leadership, and the support of the people. There's a reason the Soviet Union collapsed.