[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.

[gondramB]

>>I think you’ve hit the failing point of the socialist argument, assuming that ‘you have no hope you could improve...’ <<

I wonder if our Television and movies... even the wretched shows do give the third world an inescapable view that there is another choice.. at least another possibility. Even then, they may believe its not a possibility for them.