Right! And all state/locally funded. Once the feds get involved, things tend to go downhill
So you're OK with Socialism, just not the US Federal governments involvement in socialism? If so, you should really make that more clear.
OK, but I could use N. Korea or the former Soviet Union as counter examples
Neither of which were ever true socialist states. They took a lot more socialist ideals, but the whole concept of socialism, or to the farthest reaches of true-communism, is that there is NO central authority. In reality, that never occurs. Someone will always take power, and typically the person most willing to do so is the person you least likely want to have it.
Power corrupts. When you make the government all powerful, which is necessary for true Socialism, corruption happens.
And the exact same thing can be said for the free markets. With out the stablising force of a strong government, a free market will eat itself and collapse. See the 1920's, 1980's, 2000's, and we'll probably see it again by the 2030's.
Some would say that's why we have the world's largest economy by far. We certainly have the most production per capita of any nation in history, and we are a lazy lot.
A rank that won't be ours for much longer. The BRIC countries are expanding at such a rate that by 2020 we will no longer hold either of those records.
-Rick