Synopsis
Niemietz argues that socialism has repeatedly failed in practice while supporters disown each collapse, defending markets as the better engine of prosperity.
Core passage idea
Paraphrase · Modern copyrighted workEach time a socialist experiment fails, defenders insist it was never real socialism, a pattern that recurs across decades and countries.
It presses a market-liberal critique by treating socialism's record, not its ideals, as the proper test of the idea.
To avoid a bubble
Pair with G. A. Cohen, Why Not Socialism?.
Reading note
Read it as one side of an argument, checking its historical cases against socialist rejoinders about context and circumstance.
Best paired with
G. A. Cohen, Why Not Socialism?