this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2025
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Explain Like I'm Five
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Where in the world has socialism been successful in the past?
I'll wait.
I'm Canadian and my country is extremely successful. We're also pretty socialist. Obviously socialism isnt a binary, but we have universal Healthcare, strong financial regulations, and a stronger more centralized federal government than the US. We're doing very well, and the elements which cause us the most pain tend to be where we are more like the states, not where we're more like Denmark.
Off the top of my head: Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland.
Here is an important example of the disconnect between liberal and conservative interpretation of the word "socialist". Economists would not label Scandinavian countries as socialist. Meanwhile conservatives point to Cuba and Venezuela as examples of socialist failure when that's not entirely true either. We're talking past each other in these debates.
That's because Conservatives have no argument other than pedantry when it comes to their villifying of "socialism".
"They aren't socialist, they're Democratic Socialism or Social Democrats, which are totally different from each other and not socialism at all!" (Is their pedantry, in case anyone was wondering)
It's ALL socialism, just with a few different policies at play. But that would destroy the conservative argument that you can't have a successful capital economy under socialism. So they play the "They aren't real socialists" bullshit game.
Economists would say that's a matter for political scientists. And aren't all conservative.
But yes, in the English-speaking world, conservatives and the far left use the traditional definition, while the mainstream left has recently gravitated towards something like "when the government does things".
In the same vein you could argue that US is not true Capitalism because trickle down doesn't happen and many means of production are still owned by the government.
And yet we call them a Capitalist country, no?