Don't say Socialism always fails. That is not true. If we cannot be honest about truth and facts, we cannot discuss anything.
"Norway Is Far More Socialist Than Venezuela"
Matt Bruenig January 27, 2019
https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2019/01/27/norway-is-far-more-socialist-than-venezuela/
"Venezuela and Norway both have abnormally large oil sectors, nationalized oil reserves, and nationalized oil companies.
In Norway, the surplus from the oil boom has been used to build a $1 trillion collectively-owned capital fund with the return on that capital going to finance general government spending, including the country’s large welfare state. This capital fund is even colorfully described by the Norwegian government as “the people’s money, owned by everyone, divided equally and for generations to come.”
In Venezuela, the government appears to have used the surplus primarily to finance current social spending. This means that, on the thing most remarkable about the two countries, Norway comes away as more socialist. Norway uses its oil sector to build an enormous stock of collectively-owned capital, which then goes to fund social spending while Venezuela skips the middle step. Insofar as socialism is about collective ownership of the means of production, an objective observer would have to declare Norway the more socialist of the two.
Norway’s edge on Venezuela goes beyond the different ways the two countries have handled their nationalized oil sectors. Although Venezuelan data is a bit hard to come by, it is hard to imagine based on what information we do have that the Venezuelan government owns one-third of the country’s domestic corporate equity like Norway does. And the Venezuelan government for sure does not own 60 percent of the national wealth like Norway does. Even on indicators that are not strictly socialist but that people often conflate with socialism — such as government taxes, revenue and expenditure — Norway dominates."
"Democrats point to Nordic nations as models of socialism. Here’s how they actually work."
By Charles Lane Editorial writer and columnist specializing in economic and fiscal policy
June 24, 2019
