Socialism-based societies should not be seen as those where the government makes every decision for you, but where its citizens are fully reliant on the government for everything.
The crux is that the government is not powerful, in and of itself, but that it gains its power indirectly from your need for it. [...]

In the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal was a memorium for Irving Kristol.  The memorium took excerpts from several of Kristol’s famous articles, and I liked this one the best:
“Income Inequality Without Class Conflict, Dec. 18, 1997
It is often said that capitalism—that is, a market economy—is morally obnoxious because its “trickle-down economics” inevitably [...]

Someone posted this on a wall in LA this week.

When I first heard the European Commission had fined Intel about $1.45 billion for monopolistic practices, I was somewhat skeptical.   It seems like big, specialized companies without too many strong competitors are unfairly targeted.    The suit was prompted by AMD who alleged Intel was using “unfair” business practices.  And given the huge drops in PC prices [...]