World’s Best Tweet about Socialism and Capitalism

I wrote a column earlier this month about the “world’s most depressing tweet,” which came from the Census Bureau and noted that the suburbs of Washington, DC, are the richest parts of America.

To be sure, I was engaging in a bit of hyperbole since a tweet about famine, war, or genocide surely would be more depressing. Nonetheless, I think it is a very bad sign that so many undeserving people are making so much money thanks to a bloated and cronyist central government.

Today I want to share another tweet that deserves some sort of special accolade.

I thought about calling it the “world’s best-ever tweet,” but I’m going to be more restrained and simply assert that it is the best tweet about socialism and capitalism.

“Real Socialism” has never been tried in the same way that “Real Capitalism” has never been tried.

The difference is ‘almost Socialism’ resulted in the impoverishment & death of hundreds of millions of people.

While ‘Almost Capitalism’ has lifted billions from absolute poverty.

— Mark (@markantro) January 23, 2018

This is spot on.

I’ve dealt with countless leftists who claim that the failure of places such as Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, Greece, Zimbabwe, and the Soviet Union don’t count because they weren’t “real socialism” or “real communism.”

Indeed, that’s even become a humorous theme (see here, here, and here from my collection of socialism/communism humor).

But shouldn’t we learn something from the fact that “almost socialism” invariably produces awful results?

Similarly, there has never been a society that is 100 percent capitalist. The world’s freest nations today, such as Hong Kong and Singapore, have state sectors that consume about 20 percent of economic output. Likewise, government consumed 10 percent of GDP during the height of the western world’s supposedly laissez-faire period in the 1800s.

That being said, shouldn’t we learn something from the fact that “almost capitalism” created the amazing hockey stick of human progress? Shouldn’t we learn something from the fact that “some capitalism” is capable of dramatically reducing global poverty?

P.S. If there was a prize for the most short-sighted, naive, and anti-empirical tweet, this example would win the prize.

P.P.S. And this tweet wins the prize for the best comeback. Consider it a case of tweet-on-tweet violence.

P.P.P.S. Last but not least, here’s a tweet that sums up the essential difference between libertarians and statists.