Svetlana Kunin, a retired software developer who immigrated from the USSR to the US almost 30 years ago writes a nice piece comparing the economic systems.

Socialism has bankrupted and failed every society, while capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any other system.

There is no perfect society. There are no perfect people. Critics say that greed is the driving force of capitalism. My answer is that envy is the driving force of socialism. Change to socialism is not an improvement on the imperfections of the current system.

The slogans of "fairness and equality" sound better than the slogans of capitalism. But unlike at the beginning of the 20th century, when these slogans and ideas were yet to be tested, we have accumulated history and reality.

Today we can define the better system not by slogans, but by looking at the accumulated facts. We can compare which ideology leads to the most oppression and which brings the most opportunity.

Read the whole thing.  Via Craig Newmark.

In my teaching career (spanning over 15 years), the students who are the most ardent defenders of free markets and capitalism are those that grew up in communist countries.  That's an admittedly small number of students, but still interesting IMHO.