# How to determine if a country is more socialist or capitalist

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-determine-if-a-country-is-more-socialist-or-capitalist/547526>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 21, 2010, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-determine-if-a-country-is-more-socialist-or-capitalist/547526 "2010-07-21T23:46:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Rucksinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/898d66/32.png) [@Rucksinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rucksinator)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-determine-if-a-country-is-more-socialist-or-capitalist/547526/21 "2010-07-23T19:11:38Z")

</div>

> [@gonzomax](#):
>
> [List of socialist states - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_socialist_countries) Here is a nice list to start with of socialistic countries.  
> Most countries are a mesh of systems.  
> [Communist state - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_communist_states) The communist countries are fewer.

That first link was what I used to identify Libya. I’m going to try to post my spreadsheet. Hopefully, it will be readable.

```auto

		GDP per capita	GDP Budget Ratio	Population below poverty line		
									
								
Benin $1,500.00	$13.25	$1.19	$1.84	0.139018868	37.40% Capitalist
Ethiopia	$900.00 $76.74	$4.71	$5.40	0.070328382	38.70%		
Sudan $2,300.00	$92.81	$9.01	$10.38	0.111841396	40.00%		
Egypt $6,000.00	$471.20	$50.95	$63.39	0.134528862	20.00%		
Angola $8,900.00	$114.40	$34.02	$32.47	0.283828671	40.50%		
Algeria $7,000.00	$239.60	$63.08	$75.76	0.316193656	23.00%		
South Africa	$10,100.00	$280.60	$77.68	$94.57	0.337027798	50.00%		
Libya $15,200.00	$95.88	$34.19	$34.73	0.362223613	7.40% Socialist
Zimbabwe	< $100 $0.33	$0.13	$0.26	0.777108434	68.00%		
								
United States	$46,400.00	$14,260.00	$2,104.00	$3,520.00	0.24684432	12.00% Capitalist
Cuba $9,700.00	$111.10	$47.08	$50.34	0.453105311	NA Communist
Sweden $36,800.00	$333.50	$217.60	$221.10	0.662968516	NA Socialist

```

That’s about as clean as I can get it. The GDP and Budget numbers are in Billions.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-determine-if-a-country-is-more-socialist-or-capitalist/547526/22 "2010-07-23T19:24:53Z")

</div>

If you are going to compare government budgets between countries, you need to combine budgets at all levels of government in the country. For example, many functions (such as education and roads) that are carried out mostly at the state and local level in some countries, but at the national level in other countries, will be missed out in the comparison.

And, when you do that, you need to subtract inter-governmental grants and transfers from the total, since otherwise you are counting the same money twice. “Total budget” is not a simple concept.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-determine-if-a-country-is-more-socialist-or-capitalist/547526/23 "2010-07-24T10:40:23Z")

</div>

> [@Rucksinator](#):
>
> But still, nobody here has commented on the legitimacy of my idea of using a countries budget relative to its GDP to determine its level of socialism.

I think I did. See #17. Bottom line: _not_ a good indicator.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-determine-if-a-country-is-more-socialist-or-capitalist/547526/24 "2010-07-24T11:55:22Z")

</div>

> [@Rucksinator](#):
>
> But still, nobody here has commented on the legitimacy of my idea of using a countries budget relative to its GDP to determine its level of socialism.

Surely **UDS** suggested pretty much the same thing in the second post in this thread?

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-determine-if-a-country-is-more-socialist-or-capitalist/547526.md?page=1)