Personally I don't think there is such a thing as benign socialism. All socialists believe strongly in redistribution of wealth.

Substitute the word government for socialism and I agree 100% with that statement<g>.

Governments have any number of ways of redistributing wealth, from outright confiscation, to inflation, currency debasement and direct and hidden taxation.

If they want some of the same government run programs that we have then that is fine it is their country and they can decide for themselves what they want.

Everybody wants a free lunch these days, but is that the curse of socialism, or the curse of democracy?

As an investor though I know that these programs will cost a lot of money and as governments have no money of their own the only way they will get it is from someone else.

On the contrary, governments have a technology called the printing press.....

In poor socialist countries foreigners tend to be an especially juicy target. You can do what you want with your money but to me mining is a risky enough business without the added risk of a confiscatory government.

The problem with outright confiscation is that you can only do it once. Letting people think that they actually own something, then taxing the hell out of it on an ongoing basis is a much better approach. Only foolish parasites kill their hosts. That's why Ebola is rare while the common cold thrives.

ebear