Save us from socialism. Oh, wait...

I live, work and thrive in a market economy and I am not a socialist.

But today a read a message from a good friend who said "socialism is trickle up poverty"; a clear rebroadcast of a throbbing theme from AM radio or cable news.

So I wondered. Could he be right? Or do my Swedish friends know something that we don't? Is socialism a scourge or a bastion?

The book At the Front Lines of Medicine (2004) by Dr. Howard Waitzkin helps clear things up for me.

On nearly every measure people in socialist countries lead better lives than people in capitalist countries. Physical Quality of Life (PQL) is a composite index that the author uses to measure political-economics, socioeconomics and health. It shows us that people in socialist countries are better educated, have greater access to doctors and teachers, eat better, have schools and jobs and yes, live longer. The data is attached below.

The conclusion has anecdotal support as well. On a recent trip to the Nordics, I found clean, crime-free, free moving, integrated cities with top-notch schools, low unemployment and high wages. Last night I talked with a 45-year-old Finn who told me he'd never seen marijuana. It seemed completely foreign to him. And his taxes are about the same as mine. Furthermore, businesses and entrepreneurs in these countries thrive in global markets. Think Nokia, Volvo and Linux.

Admittedly, Dr. Waitzkin doesn't tell us if more people have a chance to become wealthy in one environment vs. the other. I think that is self-evident. But he does point out that even the rich don't live as well in capitalist countries as they do in socialist countries.

So then I wondered, why do we fear socialism? I suspect it is for the same reason that we fear anything: we don't understand it.