It wouldn't be without that 5,000 mile border. I remember when Canada worried about being subsumed into the economic colossus to the south. And rightly so, IMO. But problems were worked out and, as we see, continue to be worked out. *Anecdote alert* In 1967 I was on leave and decided to take in Expo '67 in Montreal. I couldn't find U.S. cigarettes anywhere but at the USSR pavilion at Expo. I guess they didn't care about Canadian laws or about selling Marlboros.
So does most of Europe. If we use the popular criterion of "universal healthcare", then all wealthy countries except the US are "socialist". REAL socialism, that is, public ownership of all kinds of means of production, is prone to spectacular failure - also, not even Bernie Sanders advocates for it. I believe that modern "capitalism" ideology is moral rather than economic. People don't like policies not because they're "expensive" (or we'd see those same people decrying corporate welfare and unsustainable tax cuts), but rather because they help the poor. And the poor are icky. I might be wrong, but similar logic helped tank Canadian national daycare entitlement scheme. In this case, working mothers are icky. People look for economic excuses to explain their socialismofobia because everyone is at least somewhat familiar with the Bible. No one wants to openly bash the poor when Christianity is supposed to be pro-poor.
I took Econ101 many years ago. I learned that there were no such thing as pure capitalist/free market economies then. There were services that were best provided by the government because not feasible to make a profit. There were also services that were provided by monopolies because the economy of scales were necessary to provide the service. = I don’t think jesus was a capitalist. That concept won’t have made much sense then. Followers were to accumulate their wealth in heaven not on earth. The parable of the camel, rich guy, and neddle, is an example.
