Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- proper noun The practice in otherwise
free market capitalist economies in which the government steps in to bailout or otherwise subsidize weak or failing firms. A government attempting to transition from capitalism tosocialism by this method takes control of the worst industries — the "lemons " — first, which undermines such an approach.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Coined by Mark Green in 1974 .
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word lemon socialism.
Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
john commented on the word lemon socialism
“I’m talking, instead, about the administration’s plans for a banking system rescue — plans that are shaping up as a classic exercise in ‘lemon socialism’: taxpayers bear the cost if things go wrong, but stockholders and executives get the benefits if things go right.�?
The New York Times, Bailouts for Bunglers , by Paul Krugman, February 1, 2009
February 2, 2009