It’s the most common argument against socialism: "It has never worked and will never work." But is that true? We put this claim to the test, using academic metrics to evaluate its historical performance—from its successes in human development to its catastrophic failures in political freedom and economic prosperity. We separate fact from fiction, exploring why the Nordic model isn't socialist , why human nature may not be the barrier critics claim , and whether the entire philosophy is defined by the failures of its most infamous 20th-century experiments.