[Greg F]

I’m not sure that Americans who are exposed to conservative ideas are firm anymore. I’ve had several people here at Free Republic defend compulsory universal healthcare because Romney implemented it in Mass. If Freepers are confused about whether free markets work then it will be very hard to persuade new immigrants or people raised into socialism that free markets work.

[mnehring]

...if you were born in a country that was nominally capitalist and yet everyone you knew was poor and while there were rich people around, you had no hope that you could improve your lot, do you think that you would be able to fall for socialism?

I think you've hit the failing point of the socialist argument, assuming that 'you have no hope you could improve...' I'm not talking about the empty, rhetorical hope of Obama, but that core belief that life is in your own hands and you will not let outside influence control your life. The socialist mantra wants you to believe that you don't have control and thus you should give it up to the system. That seems to just perpetuate the problem that you don't have control. In the case of giving it up to socialism, it just takes it one step further because in the example, it is perceived loss of control, but by giving it up to the system, you are freely releasing control.

[absolootezer0]

yup, i could be a socialist.. if i was the guy in charge.

[kidd]

If someone says that a math problem is taxing their brain, and you wonder if everyone is going to get a little smarter...you might be a socialist.

If you saw 'The Matrix' and thought it was a good idea...you might be a socialist.

If you are disgusted by all the food on the shelves at a supermarket...you might be a socialist.

If you think a ten month wait for a maternity ward is acceptable...you might be a socialist.

[antisocial]

From Discoverthenetwork:

One of the great myths of the left is that socialism is a movement of the people, the working classes, or the poor. In fact — as Frederick Hayek pointed out long ago — all socialist movements are the creation of intellectual elites, liberally pollinated by millionaires. Karl Marx was the kept intellectual of factory owner Frederick Engels; Bill Ayers, a leader of the terrorist cult called the Weatherman, was a scion of the American upper class; Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation, is a multi-millionairess; Michael Moore, leftwing propagandist, is a multi-millionaire who has profited handsomely from the “struggle.” The Leftwing Millionaires Club is a very incomplete list designed to illustrate this point and to serve as a reminder that everything is not always what it appears. (Text: Frederick Hayek “The Intellectuals and Socialism,” in Hayek, Socialism and War, University of Chicago Press, 1997)