What are the former communist countries that are in the EU today?

Are European countries today capitalist or socialist?

• In AP world history today we were learning about modern economic systems. my teacher said that today European countries are socialist and the US is capitalist. However when I looked online researching for my homework, the wikipedia said that all countries in the EU are capitalist. Im sure this is a very complicated topic, but in as few words as possible, is europe capitalist or socialist?

• Answer:

  The problem has to do with the words "capitalism" and "socialism". These words have become politicized and economist dropped them years ago. Instead economist talk of market economies, mixed economies and command economies. European economies are mixed economies. The US is also a mixed economy. Mixed economies have significant market forces but also significant government interference. The government controls or regulates almost everything. Market economies have little government involvement in the allocation of goods. When Americans thing of socialism, they usually think of a single type (Fabian Socialism). This is were the government control the main production but leaves distribution to the market. this however is not the only type of socialism. Capitalism and socialism was never mean to refer to personal freedom but instead it was meant to refer to the amount of government control in the economy. The US has an economy that has less government interference than most European counties, but the differences are not that large. I hope that this explain it. If not, then be sure to take an economics course when you get to college.