Would you agree that one of the primary ways of distinguishing between conservative and leftist is tax policy and the size of government they advocate?
Steve Forbes pushed for a flat tax of 17%, which was deemed too extreme by some of his conservative primary opponents.
Politically, it seems to have no chance of passing.
Russia today has a flat tax of 13%.
In light of this key fact, which would you say is more socialist today — Russia or the USA?
If you want to assess overall level of taxation, general government expenditure to GDP is the best indicator. Russia is at close to 40, just few points below major western countries and far above many others, China for example... What's more capitalism is not only about taxes (otherwise places like Rwanda would be at the top of the list) but also about the rule of law, intellectual property rights, corruption etc. and in this case Russia is terrible... forget about doing big business unless you are Putin's buddy. Small business ? You will have to regularly bribe people at 20 institutions, add to that CEOs of the largest companies hand picked by the president for life and that really doesn't have much to do with capitalism...
Anyway, let's say Russia is less socialist than USA... ok but then you could prove the same way that China is even less socialist... mmm let's post Xi Jinping shirtless perhaps ? Homo ? Saudi Arabia or Iran are far more anti-homo than Putin's Russia. Perhaps Ahmadinejad is also fishing shirtless... ?
You seem to admire Putin... Why ? I would really like to understand the logic behind it.