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#71 | Posted by donnerboy at 2025-11-24 11:43 AM
My AI tells me that social welfare polices contribute to citizen well-being.
Countries often identified with socialist policies, like Finland, Denmark, and other Nordic nations, consistently rank high on happiness reports due to factors such as ... economic equality... While happiness is subjective and these nations have social democratic rather than purely socialist economies, the correlation is often cited .
That's "AI" problem.
Yes, "happiness" is very subjective, especially since the purported surveys don't really measure happiness - they derive single-number index ** from several categories and then try to "key in" (correlate) every year on "key subject", like age (2024), charity (2025) etc. - none of which is close to causation re happiness, let alone "socialism" - unless, of course, attempting to associate with or define "socialism" as "happy country" or "free, universal healthcare" and other random unrelated whatnots.
Here's just a few real correlations you can make just looking at couple of these lists:
1. Countries in the North (with long winters and snow) are much "happier" than countries in Africa (South)
2. Countries with a very small population (< 11M people) in peace are happier than the more populous countries at war.
3. Relatively small rich countries with mostly homogeneous population that didn't have to care much about rest of the world?
Is Sweden still "socialist" after becoming highest in Europe in wealth distribution inequality?
Why is "socialist" France (with lower inequality) ranked much lower than "socialist" Germany or "capitalist" US?
mieuxdonner.org - Report 2025
placebrandobserver.com - Report 2024
#57 | Posted by LauraMohr at 2025-11-23 05:20 AM
Key ideas of socialism
Collective ownership
Wealth distribution
Social welfare
Government regulation
Variations of socialism
Democratic socialism
State socialism
So the "socialism" seems to be a basket of a lot of things that you can pick and choose from, depending on the argument:
"A rose of socialism (wherever we can find it and however we define it) by any other name is just as sweet"?
#120 | Posted by SpeakSoftly at 2025-11-24 11:17 PM
This data is called REAL WAGE DECLINE.
www.statista.com
The problem with this "DATA" is that it only goes from 2021 to 2024 - i.e., after COVID and Trump-Biden "Keynesian / trickle-up" stimuli and inevitable corresponding inflation - the phenomenon is not limited to the US - picking a short amount of time to make sweeping conclusions, especially in economics, during major crisis (like "gouging" and others at the time, which were easily proved wrong) is a fallacy known as "Faulty / Hasty Generalization".
#64 | Posted by donnerboy at 2025-11-23 11:16 AM
We Americans are a very politically confused bunch of people.
Yes, we are... because we keep trying to define / call things which they're not.
Maybe it's education system, misinformation, biases, all of the above.
Or it's a "pursuit of happiness" ("Cantril Ladder" used by reports **) for those in the US who are convinced that "grass always greener" somewhere else, or would be different under a different "system".
www.nature.com - Cantril Ladder elicits thoughts about power and wealth (2024)
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But why Snoofy a broke dick loser?
Because Eberly doesn't pay enough in taxes.
#66 | Posted by eberly
Congrats on being in the .001%
Didn't realize you were in the class that has gotten so rich through the destruction of the social compact.