The argument from past results is powerful, given so many attempts yielding the same dire results. But die-hard socialists will always find another reason that the economy collapsed such as "the United States interfered", as they say about Venezuela. And the US did interfere by invoking sanctions against Venezuela, and sanctions clearly harm the economy.

So the argument against socialism in the general case needs to be from first principles. The anti-authoritarian socialists like Jimmy Dore, Glenn Greenwald, Max Blumenthal, Jackson Hinkle -- they never talk about socialism in terms of the economic freedom of individuals, they talk about it in terms of massive corporate authoritariancontrol over government. So I don't even know what they think anymore when it comes to economic freedom of individuals vs Marx's "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

The first principles argument are things like

* People won't work if they have no incentive, and that includes the people that build engines of productivity

* People will compete to be the most pathetic and thus the most needy

* Innovation will stagnate

* Without the price signal, there will be no indication of change in demand for goods

* Without ownership, people will not take care of things

I'm a big fan of the current liberal, anti-authoritarian socialists like Jimmy Dore, Glenn Greenwald, Max Blumenthal, and Jackson Hinkle because we agree on everything other than this one point. And I just don't know what to make of them on this point. Maybe they don't actually think what the old socialists thought.