Socialism will even work here till the politicians run out of other peoples money to spend. Or destroy the currency.

That is the key, in my opinion, and also why it runs in cycles.

It works till more wealth distribution promises are made than can be kept. Once the promises come due and the point in time comes that there are not enough resources to keep the promises, then is when things start coming undone.

So socialism can work if the nation has a lot of natural resources to plunder or if there is an element of society that can be plundered to meet the promises made by the ruling class. Everything seems to work till the point promises can no longer be kept because the living beyond means avaliable exceeds all reserves or ability to borrow from the future.

Socilaism works till the ruling class runs out of other peoples money to spend. That is why it can appear to work for a number of years, then unexpectedly to some it fails, and they never "get" why it failed. It seemed to work fine, but then it quit working. It all boils down to a country living beyond its means. That is why government deficits really do matter. They can not seem to matter for a number of years, because things seem to work. But when expenses exceed income, eventually failure happens. Socialism, capitalism, or whatever. One can only live on borrowed money or stealing from the future so long before failure results.

John