What USSR managed to do is certainly incredible, especially in space explorations and technology. As a Slav, Russia/USSR will always have my sympathies. What I'm pointing is the difference between the pre-WWII communism and post-WWII communism.
In pre-WWII era, Russia, USA and Western Europe were pretty much parallel in their growth of GDP. USA suffered heavily during the great depression.
What we see in post-WWII era is that other countries have increased their lead (ESP, FIN, JAP...). In comparison to Western Europe, the lag increased from 20 years to 30 years.
Also interesting, in 1950, GDP per capita of USA was 9.5k $, SWI 9.0 $, Venezuela 7.5k !!! And now it's in ruins :(
http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Economy/GDP-per-capita-in-1950
I'm very sceptical how applicable this system is in XXI century, especially because we are having all sorts of competition on a global level from manufacturing to IT.
I'll give you an example from Yugoslavia.
During the 80's we started the production of the tank M-84, YU variant of Soviet T-72.
It was produced in 250 factories + 1000 other cooperate?!
People had some jobs - YES
The tank was good - Well, it was solid and competitive
What this sustainable - No, Not after the breakup
Or, the famous Yugo. Yugoslavia was paying the salaries for many thousands of workers. It costed more to produce that Yugo than it cost after the export in the USA?!
The results were tragic. A non-competitive economy that was not based on real rules of the market simply disintegrated when the new tech revolution came and paved the road to war.
Would I be a communist in 1900 - 99% that I would be
Would I be in 2020 - almost certainly not
Would I like to see something better than "West" - absolutely
The funny thing is that there's not one single Communist participating in this thread.
I always wonder how much being excluded from 3/4 of world trade has to do with every socialist country having problems. In my opinion it's not possible to compare the economies that way.
You surely can't say that the politicians of the West do a great job, they also burn money all the time.
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As long as there are borders for trading - there is no need for capitalism.
Once the high-efficiency production based on the principle "be the best of parish" strikes in - the whole story collapses.
Example, small manufacturers of everything vs AliExpress, IKEA, Chinese merchendise
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IKEA got big by manufacturing cheaply in socialist countries though :D
The thing is that because of sanctions (which often hit the population there the most, e.g. medicine) the socialist countries could and still can not participate in the bigger markets. Independent of the level of state control they really exercise over their local production and markets. Once there's a socialist government, the rest of the world puts them on a black list, and shortly after tell everyone "told you so".
If China shows anything it's that neither capitalism nor socialism in their pure form (whatever that means) work best, but that you need to be flexible and adapt.
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That's fair enough. My disagreement would be that the capitalist/communist divide is historically determined. There is not 'other' (the other would be fascism, but that remains within capitalism. And no, the nazis weren't socialist. Buffalo Wild Wings doesn't serve Buffalos. Camel Cigarettes aren't made from camels)
I can't speak much about Yugoslavia because it's not a historical moment I've studied much. Speaking of communism as a social experiment, both occurred under intense attack by the West, along with their own internal contradictions. The example you cite in Yugoslavia, of the unproductive nature of the economy, I'd say is less an example of what communism could be (I consider all those experiments as socialist, not communist btw) and more of how it degenerates under capitalist market conditions.
Communism needs to be a global phenomenon to succeed. Either way, the nature of things as they are now offer no solution to global climate change, which will soon render this planet uninhabitable to these useless debates
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I'm not sure if that was an active attack or it's a simple human nature.
In YU, the Marksism was the subject in school, I forgot if it was obligatory in the elementary school but it certainly was in high school and on the first 2 years on faculties. And it was obligatory from the end of WWII until 80's.
Yet... Even after 40 years living in communism, learning in school about communism, how good it is, it all collapsed once it was possible to drive a Mercedes and not Lada. And when it became possible to wear Lewis 501 and not the same thing produced locally.
Once the people are not in imminent threat - they tend to form hierarchies, not the equality.
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