Socialist systems are fundamentally flawed and doomed to failure.

I think the large criticisms of Socialism by conservative and right leaning factions are mostly straw men. Examples of this include listing the Soviet Union, Cuba, And especially recently Venezuela. I will go into the Venezuela example in detail to outline the full picture as to why Socialism as an ideology is not doomed to fail and factors such as government mismanagement, Corruption, And outside interference has turned the country into what it is today. Socialism is a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, Distribution, And exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole. It is an answer to the criticisms of capitalism and the free market which unfortunately due to the nature of the system produces both winners and losers. In the United States, Income inequality has exploded since the 1980's where President Ronald Reagan's administration enacted policies which effectively diminished the power of the social safety net and emphasized the concept of "trickle down economics". Today, The middle class is the smallest it has ever been and continues to shrink while the wealthiest continue to get wealthier. This trend largely started during the Reagan presidency. A misleading tactic among the right is to frame their Socialism arguments as incompatible to democratic values which is farther from the truth. While straw manning economically dismal countries such as Cuba and Venezuela may be easy, They fail to take up the challenge of explaining how countries who are democracies with Socialist aspects are successful such as Canada, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Etc. Those countries have healthcare and education for example provided by the government and taxpayers and have some of the most efficient healthcare and education systems in the world. This is Socialism whether people want to admit it or not. In the United States, We pay more money for less care, Meanwhile our friends to the north of us in Canada can get sick and go see a doctor and not have to deal with a financial burden that we would here. Half of all families in the United States live paycheck to paycheck, Socialistic programs which already exist such as social security and CHIP help those who would otherwise go without and potentially die without these programs. Additional programs such as single payer healthcare and a strong progressive tax rate would do a lot in distributing much of the money that is trapped at the top into the pockets of families that desperately need it. In Venezuela, There is record inflation, Blackouts, And looting which obviously are bad things and it is easy to put the blame solely on the Venezuelan Socialist system. What many do not know or knowingly omit is that Venezuela sits on top of the world's largest oil reserves, Even more than Saudi Arabia. The United States has been interested in this oil for some time and the powerful petroleum lobby has been at work trying to get access to those oil reserves. The Venezuelan president at the time, Hugo Chavez, Refused and decided to nationalize the oil instead. Chavez and his government mismanaged the economy into being dependent solely on oil profits to pay for Chavez's immensely popular social programs to assist the poor. Any person who knows anything about macroeconomics will tell you in order to build a strong economy that is protected from sudden rifts in the global economy, You must diversify. The price of oil declined during the presidency of Barack Obama and subsequently the Venezuelan economy tanked. It should also be noted that since Chavez declined to give the United States access to his country's oil, The US has been trying to get rid of Chavez through coup and assassination attempts through the CIA until his death in 2013, And has continued under the leadership of Nicolas Maduro. Nicolas Maduro is not an expert in economics, He is a former bus driver. Under his rule, The economy has gotten worse as he attempts to cling onto power by funding social programs his base (the poor) depends on while continuing to not diversify the Venezuelan economy. He also funds the military to ensure their support through whatever oil profits the country does bring in. United States sanctions have also kept the country's struggling population from receiving food and medicine that they need, It does not impact Nicolas Maduro's regime like they think it does. To summarize, Socialism as an ideology and a system is not inherently doomed to fail. Where I think Socialism does fail is where aspects of authoritarianism are also brought into the discussion, I think a capitalist system with socialist programs in countries such as Canada and Denmark where you are not forced to work a certain job because the government tells you to and where the government does not own the means the production completely works the best. The programs in those countries have proven to be quite successful. I am more than happy to continue debate on the topic, However, I think most arguments to Socialism are not real criticisms but straw men which don't criticism certain aspects of the system, But point to failures of the system and yet intentionally forget the numerous successes in the world today. I should also note I am not a full 100% Socialist, I am a capitalist that supports social programs in a democracy.