Interesting post, TPA. There is certainly a lot of scope for suggesting different balances on all those pendulums you mentioned; I expect some configurations might be rather "interesting" places to live.
(Oh, by the way:
At the risk of setting this thread in a whole new direction - not what I want to do at all - I have to say that few if any European countries could accurately be described as being socialist. There are what could be described as socialistic elements - supposedly equal access to a small number of resources (see one of the health system debates currently running on the Chrons) - but that is about it. Shares in our big companies are traded on our stock markets and bourses, just like US companies' are. Our governments employ people, but so do the US and state governments.)
(Oh, by the way:
At the risk of setting this thread in a whole new direction - not what I want to do at all - I have to say that few if any European countries could accurately be described as being socialist. There are what could be described as socialistic elements - supposedly equal access to a small number of resources (see one of the health system debates currently running on the Chrons) - but that is about it. Shares in our big companies are traded on our stock markets and bourses, just like US companies' are. Our governments employ people, but so do the US and state governments.)
