I read your whole post... um, bro. You should
Post# of 329
You should look closer at Norway and less at Venezuela IMO.
Norway embraces socialism (state welfare) balanced with capitalism and democracy (i.e. free and fair elections).
By almost any metric, Norway comes out better than the United States (e.g. life expectancy, education, healthcare, "happiness," etc.)
Some have suggested countries like Norway use a system best described as "compassionate capitalism." Perhaps it wouldn't be demonized so much in the U.S. if we called it something like that.
Now I'll bow out. I actually apologized to Misiu in a PM. I was too harsh in some of my earlier comments. I understand I'm probably one of very few liberals invested in CYDY, so you guys and gals have fun.