by the historian Frank Dikötter resulted in a minimum of 45 million deaths, the gravity of which is underscored by the fact that black markets for the sale of human meat came into existence in China during this period.
To my unrefined thought process this would appear to be the ultimate of unrestrained market capitalism, not socialism. No "system" can overcome such terrible leadership and there are equal numbers of examples of fascism (the word capitalists always avoid) failures causing mass death and destruction.
Just the fact that you so easily conflate Maoist China and the former Soviet Union with "socialism" says that you are aiming for propaganda over information. Both were communist states that "owned" their means of production without any democratic input by the people. Communism is the natural enemy of democracy, followed closely by fascism.
One of the largest issues we encounter in our societies currently is the move towards larger and larger government.
We actually agree somewhat here, but I'm sure that our opinion regarding the beneficiaries of that larger government are directly opposite. When the central currency-issuing government is controlled by corporate interests they have no desire for a "smaller" government except in its ability to benefit the people and the workforce.
As the government becomes more responsive to those corporate interests the primary funding for the people is left up to banks and employers, making the wealthy shareholders critical to the common good. A more socialist government that responds to the will of the people directly funds those people with its currency issuing authority and allows the "REAL" free market to determine outcomes for corporations.
Capitalism requires customers, but fascism only requires control of the currency, which is why capitalism must be limited by the people's government from ever having influence in a nation's economics. Capitalism that is allowed to exert its influence in government cannot help but evolve into fascism because of the advantage government offers to monopoly interests and their banks. I'm afraid that ship has sailed for the US.
