I lived in Berlin as a young man and things were wonderful then too. My age peers were typically much better off than I was in terms of standard of living and life expectation. That was actually just before the fall of the Soviet Union, and life in Berlin took a bit of an economic dip for a while as West Germany brought East Germany into the economy, but they did it.

What’s astounding to me is to listen to all the right-wing economic experts insist that a social democratic system like in Germany cannot produce vigorous growth. It’s as if they weren’t even watching while West Germany took on an economically deprived, struggling country, integrated it, and created a roaring economy that provided wealth and happiness for just about everybody.

Well I was living in Berlin, by the way, and after, I visited lots of socialist “hellhole” countries like, you know, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, etc. Imagine my surprise to find the inhabitants very well off with beautiful standards of living, plenty of leisure time, beautiful homes, and unquestioned access to healthcare without going bankrupt.

Yet somehow whenever right-wing politicians in the United States talk about Democratic socialism, they want to bring up the kleptocracy of Venezuela or the autocracy of China.

It would be silly, if it weren’t for the fact that so many Americans buy the propaganda.