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Did Socialism fail? It failed in the Soviet Union but succeeded in America and Britain. Did capitalism fail? It failed in America and succeeded in the Soviet Union and China. Socialism at bottom emphasizes society or people, whereas capitalism is about capital, money, wealth. It is extremely ironical that the West put in everything to fight the spread of socialism by pursuing fundamental social reforms. The East responded through the aggressive accumulation of capital. Today, China is preserving socialism by intensifying capitalist accumulation in Hong Kong, Shanghai and other outposts. America, on the other hand, is pursuing an economic direction that is determined by voters' wishes. Britain and France are trapped by labor movement and need to tax the rich to meet up the challenge of providing for their people. In the end, we may not understand what is capitalist about America and what is socialist about China.

To understand the currents that led to this scenario, we need to understand that the issue is neither capitalism nor socialism, but the needs of man. The highest ideals of man are liberty and equality. All men want to be free and treated as equals with others in society. Every society must therefore come to terms with the incurable demand for liberty and equality. Whenever these ideals are compromised tension is created. It is this tension that leads to the collapse of the system.

The problem with Socialism was that it imposed equality and withdrew individual liberties.The problem with capitalism was that it offered liberty and withdrew equality. In the Socialist world, a ceiling is placed over the extent to which individuals can acquire wealth. This ceiling can only exist through a serious violation of individual liberties. It is for this reason that the Soviet Union, China, North Korea and other nations of the socialist bloc placed little value on fundamental human rights. Did the western world fare any better? Not at all. Capitalism appeared to guarantee liberties, but diminished the idea of equality.
If everybody is granted the freedom to pursue the resources of society, it is obvious that some are bound to acquire more than others. It is for this reason that so-called free societies always have intolerable disparities in income some at zero level, others as high as the sky.

If liberty leads to inequality, it is expected that a responsible libertarian government should do all it can to protect the weak and bridge the income gaps. But how can this be

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