wuf, very good write-up, but I still contend that true socialism is as viable of a goal as the pure libertarian pipe dream of an absolute free market. Socialism or communism never failed-- we failed to reach them. This is mostly because reaching them would abolish the power which the inner party had snapped up post-revolution.

Again, I'm not looking to uphold the tenets of communism, but only to show that it's a practically unreachable goal in the same way as a pure free market.

In a similar vein, I'd like to point out that while capitalism got us here, that fact does not necessitate capitalism's continued implementation as the winning social structure for the future. It could just be a stepping stone, and here you are, imploring us all to stay, because, "look, we're perfectly dry!"