NOTE: All of the data below, especially the numbers, are probably low as some

have been gathered over the years and not updated.

SOCIALISM/COMMUNISM: THE PAST

USSR: 20 million deaths, China: 65 million deaths, Vietnam: 1 million, North Korea: 2
million deaths, Eastern Europe: 1 million deaths, Latin America 150,000 thousand
deaths, Africa: 1.7 million deaths. The total is quite near 100 million and counting.
(Harvard University Press, The Black Book of Communism, 1999)
None of these numbers include the millions whose lives were destroyed, as they
struggled to survive and escape from the terror or Socialism and Communism. Millions
probably, but who will ever know?
Socialism is now the Liberal dream. It is a dream that will not die regardless of the
inability of it to make peoples lives better, or how often it fails. As noted by Walter
Williams, Whether its the academic community, the media elites, stalwarts of the
Democratic Party, or organizations such as the NAACP, the National Council of LA
Raza, Green for All, the Sierra Club, and the Childrens Defense Fund, there is great
tolerance for the ideas of socialism - a system that has caused more deaths and human
misery than all the other systems combined. (See Below)
SOCIALISM/COMMUNISM: THE FUTURE?

The countries that appeared in the "Communist column" in the 20th century were
Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Benin, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Congo, Czechoslovakia, East
Germany, Ethiopia, Hungary, Mongolia, Mozambique, Poland, Romania, Somalia,
South Yemen, the USSR, and Yugoslavia. Now the only officially communist countries
are China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam. And China and Vietnam have been
moving toward a market economy for years. If communism is so great, why are so few
countries still full commie? On the Heritage Foundation's 2015 Index of Economic
Freedom, Denmark is No. 11 in the world for financial freedom, while Sweden is No. 23
out of 178 countries. Scandinavian countries used to be far more socialistic than they
are now, according to The Economist:
Sweden's public spending reached 67 percent of GDP in 1993. Astrid Lindgren, the
inventor of Pippi Longstocking, was forced to pay more than 100 percent of her income
in taxes. But tax-and-spend did not work: Sweden fell from being the fourth-richest
country in the world in 1970 to the 14th in 1993. Since then the Nordics have
changed course - mainly to the right ... Taxes have been cut.

Why did Scandinavia back away from socialism? News flash: it doesn't work. Never
has.
Regardless, socialism is having a moment in nations that should know better. As
Thomas Sowell says, "Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only
an intellectual could ignore or evade it."
Far left UK politician Jeremy Corbyn, who seeks to nationalize Britain's railroads and
energy industry, sang the socialist anthem 'The Red Flag" after being elected head of
the Labor Party on 9/12/15.
In Seattle, socialist and millennial darling Kshama Sawant was elected to the City
Council. Her Socialist Alternative party is pushing for a minimum guaranteed weekly
income of $600/week for the unemployed, free abortions, and to force "the top 500
corporations into public ownership."
Old commie Bernie Sanders - who actually honeymooned in the USSR - is providing a
thrill up the leg for Millennials. "Bernie Sanders uses socialism in the way it makes
sense, which is just good, common, moral, ethical policy." - Nick Kowalczyk, Millennial,
quoted in The [UK] Guardian, "MILLENNIALS 'HEART' BERNIE SANDERS," 8/20115
Nobody really knows what a socialist is, except for people in academia, and Bernie just
said yeah, I'm one. So what?" "Has Bernie [Sanders] managed to educate Vermonters
to the essential truth that we're all socialists now?" Lawrence ODonnell MSNBC.
According a June 2015 Gallup poll, 69 percent of 18- to 29-year- olds would have no
problem voting for a socialist for President. A May 2015 Gallup poll found that 59
percent of 18- to 34-year- olds believe that the "government should redistribute wealth
by heavy taxes on the rich."
According to a July Reason Foundation poll, 42 percent of Millennials think socialism is
preferable to capitalism. But only 16 percent could accurately define socialism.
In a Pew Research poll, as reported by The Atlantic, more than two-thirds think the
government should guarantee food, shelter, and a living wage. (Ironically, this is the
same percentage that says, "When something is funded by the government, it is usually
in-efficient and wasteful.")
A great and meaningful discussion of Socialism and why it cannot work eve is offered
in Thomas Sowells book Basic Economics. Dr. Sowell makes it so clear I find it
impossible to understand why anyone who even touches the surface of this is not
capable of understanding that it is a system that is bent on its own destruction.
Karl Popper in his book Conjectures and Refutations basically dismisses Marxism as a
tool for fools who cannot see past the fact that all explanations of Marxism are taken as
gospel because there is no way to refute them scientifically, i.e. they successfuly dodge
around the refutations that it cannot work, i.e. no computers, not enough of a database,
too many unbelievers, human weaknesses, stupidity etc..