Why Socialism/Left Wing Politics Work - An Observation

[JJDXB]

We've had many comments by our conservative board members about how socialism and social democracy do not work. I will try to counter that with two examples from the real world.

Example 1.

The State of Kerala, India

Population: 31 million


Essentially, the people of Kerala have been electing left-wing parties into office since the first state elections in 1982. Politics in the state are dominated by the Marxist-led (<---- Who knew?) Left Democratic Front (LDF, currently in power since 2006) and the Centre-Left United Democratic Front (UDF, heading by the Indian National Congress). The government itself has alternated between these two parties, neither of which has won a second term. (so you can't say the Marxist party is undemocratic).

Kerala itself is by far the most developed state in India, with an HDI of 0.827, 0.100 (yes that much) higher than the nearest competitor Chadrigarh. Literacy is 95%, compared to the nationwide average of 66%. Its GDSP (State GDP) growth rate was 9.4% in 2004-2005. Furthermore, it is ranked as the least corrupt state in the country by Transparency International (actually tables can be found on the PDF file download at the bottom of the page).

While India had moved away from ineffective hard-line socialist (I do agree they don't work) policies on a national level, Kerala continues to fuse capitalism with socialist ideas to provide the best living standards for any Indian state, complete with a Welfare Economy.

Example 2.

Emilia Romagna (look for Modena, Bologna) and Trento (Italy)

General Rankings (in Italian)

I don't wish to copy anything here because I think the wiki articles explain them best. I'll just leave it up to you.

The Example that the conservative members will often give is the USA. Now, in HDI rankings, the USA ranks as 13th. If we bar the Arab nations off the Very High - Section, we see that we are left with the vast majority of countries having incorporated socialist ideas (Universal Health Care Coverage, for example). Their HDI continues to increase at a rate equal to (or in most cases) greater than the US.

Some members will argue that GDP per Capita is a better indication of quality of life. I disagree simply because what people's income is does not necessarily increase the quality of life after a certain point. If you were to look at a standard J-Curve of Life Expectancy against GDP, you will find that after about $5000, the line starts to level off.

Also, a lot of the money that is part of the $ 45,000 - 50,000 rate in the USA can be attributed to the fact that the worlds economy runs around the USA. A lot of that money comes from the sale of oil, which is why the USA has been so far successful in staving off any trouble from its twin deficits. No other nation can afford to run such deficits for long, which is because they don't have the added revenue from oil.

[Darth Caesar]

Add Finland, Sweden and Australia to that list

[Claudius Gothicus]

NOT THIS SUBJECT AGAIN!!

You mean ''why socially aware policies that still hold the capitalist method of production as it's core work''.

Not only they worked for Australia, Finland, Sweden etc.

They worked for most of the developed world until the '73 Oil crisis.