Thomas Sowell - Socialism for the Uninformed

Yes, one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite movies

I agree, but I was referring to the article and how it applied Socialism to Venezuela (that nation is a dictatorship and is more anti-market), versus Democratic Socialism.

This explains better than I ever could, and actually mentions the part your article cited, about "no toilet paper:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/04/07/venezuelas-not-suffering-from-socialism-but-from-anti-marketism/#92b56712b53a

Socialism is by every example inferior to open competition. Whether you call it communism, national socialism, panem et circenses, or democratic socialism. Whenever you remove individual responsibility from individual choice people make poor decision. If you think for a minute Bernie Sanders will improve the economic situation of this country you need a cerebral recalibration.

I had a great example with my daughters a few months ago. We needed to clean the toy room so whoever worked the entire time got three scoops, if you worked most of the time two, and a little one. so the two oldest worked very hard to get their three scoops while the younger two slacked off. When it came time to divide the ice cream the little kids protested their smaller amounts, so I gave the socialist speech it's just not fair that the two oldest get more ice cream so they should share, the reluctantly agreed and everyone got two scoops. The brilliance came moments later from my five year old "next time I won't need to clean at all and I will still get two scoops" she immediately realized that lack of reward for actions and rewarding inactions deemphasizes productivity. Then when I asked would the room ever get cleaned she admitted that no it would not. So I welcomed her to the conservative party and gave her a third scoop. A foundational understanding of economics will teach you that a nations wealth isn't derived by its money but by its productivity Socialism decreases productivity and directly reduces wealth. On occasion it's required but as a whole it is completely worse off than individual accountability and responsibility.

I'll give you another, Plymouth (as in Massachusetts). The Pilgrims tried it and it almost wiped out their colony. No, it was the natives who saved them. It was tearing up their charter and adopting free market principles.