I’m “debating” a Liberal who thinks “Marx had some valid critiques of capitalism” and “the US has done some bad things” but isn’t great on AES. I sent them the recent post showing that China doesn’t block western media, and they said that it only shows one computer and smart people can get around blocked stuff, and I explained what it actually shows before they said “China is still more authoritarian than the US and my personal freedoms aren’t stopped by my government” (note: all of these are paraphrases, but I don’t think I’ve strawmanned anything). So, what are some solid examples of the average citizens in socialist countries having more “freedom” than in capitalist countries? Edit: Thanks for all the great responses!
The law not punishing you for doing certain things is not the same as the society and economy actually allowing you to do those things.
One great example to bring up is freedom of expression. Really how free are you to express yourself in the US? The government might not prohibit you most of the time, but there are soft censorship mechanisms in place. Your social media accounts can get censored/banned/contained by the companies who control them on the regular. The press will refuse to report on your cause. The police/justice system will find ways to mess with you. The electoral system will block you through a myriad legal/semi-legal means of voter disenfranchisement.
Another great example is the idea of owning a house. Well in the US you theoretically (according to the mainstream perception) can own as many homes as you like and do with them whatever you like. Great. How does that help the ever-growing army of the homeless US citizens? How does that help the even greater number of people who can never afford their own house and are instead forced to pay exhorbitant rents to unregulated landlords? Then we pop by China, and almost 3/4 of the population owns their home.
The US offers theoretical freedom. China offers actual freedom.