&gt; India&#x27;s problem was never socialism vs capitalism. India&#x27;s fundamental problem is systemic corruption and heavy bureaucracy.<p>Socialism, in the context of poverty, inherently leads to corruption. This is something that&#x27;s hard to understand for people who&#x27;ve only ever seen socialism and communism in countries that are already quite wealthy (e.g. Western Europe).<p>I say this as someone who is from West Bengal, which has had the world&#x27;s longest-serving, democratically-elected Communist government.