But then, neither France nor Scandinavia is "socialist"...
...at least in any sense of the word that Frenchmen or Scandinavians would recognize.
They're all free-market (="Capitalist") countries, where there just happens to be a broad consensus that society's responsibility for the welfare of its inhabitants (="Welfare State") should go a bit (quite a bit) further than in a free-for-all laissez-faire "Nightwatchman" state, and which SOMETIMES -- depending on how the latest general elections went -- are ruled by social-DEMOCRAT parties[*], which are a perfectly ordinary phenomenon in the pluralistic political environment(s) of Western Europe.
That's not "socialist" by a long shot.
You *know* you Merkins have fucked up not only the English language in general, but especially its political terminology, don't you?
[*]: Like Britain's Labour Party -- the one under Dubya's best friend Tony, you know? -- used to be, at least until they started trying to out-Thatcher the Conservatives with this "New Labour" thingy.
(Yeah, Ross, this turned out ot be a reply to MikeM almost as much as to you...)
Christian R. Conrad
Microsoft is a true reflection of Bill Gates' personality - the sleaziest, most unethical, ugliest little rat's ass the world has seen unto this time. -- [link|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=42971|Andrew Grygus]