The great question of our times is what values and systems contribute to a nation’s commercial success.
Communism was the great teacher of the 20th Century. By starting the Cold War, the Soviet Union catalyzed the differences between the free market and the planned economy. Once the distinction was drawn the horse race was on and the outcome was visible to all.
In 1950, the U.S. was on a direct path to socialism with labor in ascent and nationalization on the horizon. Even the great Schumpeter saw the inevitability of socialism. The emergence of the Soviet Union as an opponent helped crystallize the concep
ts and practices of the “free market” which could never have emerged without the boogieman and real threat of communism.
Over the next fifty years America shed its retail pricing laws,
lowered its trade barriers, welcomed blacks into society, created the
WTO, reduced the regulatory and tax burden on businesses large and
small. 
America
became the fount of commercial creativity and the economic locomotive
for the rest of the world. The economic miracles of Japan, Taiwan,
South Korea and Singapore made clear the difference between a planned
economy and a free market. The difference was so evident to all
nations, that socialism was doomed even before the fall of the Soviet
Union.
Now we come to the serious question. How much government planning can a society have in parallel with a free market and still thrive? Remember, in thinking about this question, that the U.S. will remain as the engine of innovation and creativity to be parasitically enjoyed by everyone else.
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