That's another fascinating angle on human existence, Dorothy. I remember my mother telling me that the happiest time she can recall in (Canadian) society was the war years during WWII. She says that the common sense of urgency and shared purpose in fighting the war brought people together in a way she hasn't seen before or since, and that it was wonderful. She was living in the small province of Prince Edward Island and the big city of Toronto in Canada during those years.

People do indeed need a sense of purpose and something to strive for to be happy.

It's not necessarily true that socialism deprives people of this...but it can...depending on how a socialist regime conducts itself at various levels and on what is happening generally in that society. Over-regulation of life depresses people. This is so in both capitalist and socialist societies.

I've been in Cuba, for instance, and I found the morale of the Cubans I met...their general sense of purpose and happiness...to be stronger than that of North Americans. Perhaps that is because they are under an American embargo...thus they find a sense of common purpose and pride in surviving it.

At any rate, I found them to be very happy and motivated people who most certainly were striving.

And, yes, I know some Cubans try to get out and get to North America...but so do many people in ALL the Latin American countries, so that's not a situation unique to Cuba. The biggest flight of Latin Americans to the USA comes from Mexico and Central America.

As for socialism and capitalism, they work best in a healthy mix, I think. I just had a friend who was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He started getting headaches last week, and the doctor was concerned about it. He was sent for a Catscan, and they discovered a tumor in the right frontal area of his skull. He was immediately sent to hospital on the Wednesday of that week for further observation. On Monday of the following week the operated on him, opening up the skull and removing the tumor. The operation went well. He is now back home and rapidly recovering.

What did all this cost him and his family? Nothing. Such medical care is free in Canada because we have a universal socialized medical system. No charge for the examinations. No charge for the Catscan. No charge for the hospital stay. No charge for the operation.

And yet we also have capitalism, of course, and my friend supports himself by running a small construction company, so he is not lacking for reasons to strive. He works hard.

That's what I like in a society. Socialism where it is most needed, which is in a few vital public service and administrational areas, and capitalism to take care of all the rest (the rest being normal businesses, marketing, manufacturing, entertainment and all the usual stuff that capitalism does so well).