Socialism is cool again, thanks not least to septuagenarian Sen. Bernie Sanders and millennial Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (aka AOC). Socialism has been cool before, of course, notably during the Great Depression and what became known as the Sixties, the era of Vietnam, the civil rights movement, hippies and the (old) New Left.

Soviet communism, also called “scientific socialism,” was a failure, as were the various forms of “utopian socialism” that preceded it. Perhaps you’re thinking that there are other socialist models. I thought so, too.

Advised by Western academics and “development experts” at the U.N., virtually every African government in the post-colonial era chose “the socialist path to development.” The problem with that, as the Ghanaian-born scholar George Ayittey noted recently: “Nowhere in Africa was the socialist experiment successful.”

In Latin America, too, socialism has led to dismal outcomes. Venezuela is only the most egregious example.

In a speech this year(2019년), Kim Jong-un said it was North Korea’s “historic task” to “accomplish the cause of socialism.” If so, his regime has a way to go.

China’s “socialist market economy” creates wealth, though without liberty and basic human rights. The state’s repression of dissidents and minorities ? e.g. Uighurs, Tibetans, Falun Gong and Christians ? is severe. But at least there’s income equality, right? No, according to the International Monetary Fund, China is “one of the world’s most unequal countries.”

Back to me: Disenchanted with both communism and socialism, I began reading up on capitalism. I came to understand that, unlike socialism, capitalism wasn’t invented. It arose spontaneously.