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The gulf countries are the closest thing to socialist states on the planet. Something like 70-90% of the citizenry of Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia are employ
by derektank 5mo ago
The gulf countries are the closest thing to socialist states on the planet. Something like 70-90% of the citizenry of Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia are employed by the public sector.
- derriz 5mo agoEven if only 30% of the population are citizens (like in Kuwait)?
- DonHopkins 5mo agoYou have no idea what socialism is, like so many right wing propagandists and dynastic-autocracy labor-exploitation rentier-state apologists. That's not socialism. It's an absolute autocratic monarchy distributing oil rents to a privileged citizen caste. Most of the private-sector work is done by foreign workers who don't receive the same benefits or political rights.
- derektank 5mo agoSocialism is state ownership of the means of production. The governance of that state, be it democratic, monarchical, or dictatorship of the proletariat, is a separate question.
- DonHopkins 5mo agoBy that definition, which again proves my point that you have no idea what socialism is, a king personally owning an entire country through the apparatus of the state would be socialist. Most socialists would reject that conclusion because ownership by a state isn't the same thing as ownership by society. State ownership alone isn't sufficient. If a hereditary ruling family controls the state, then "state ownership" just means ownership by that ruling elite, not by society.
- odo1242 5mo agoSocialism is public ownership of the means of production. If there isn’t a way for regular people / “the proletariat” to influence the government, it’s not socialism because an autocratic government isn’t “the public”