this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2025
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Not in my experience lol
Usually when people say this they're comparing, for example, cuba, to a world economic super power like the US.
This is often done instead of comparing the country before socialism and after. Although I think the police states of communist nations are distasteful (I understand why they do them, it's because the CIA essentially gives them no choice), I think the economic arguments are completely invalid. Some of the fastest growing economies of all time are the soviet union and china. They just keep getting compared to literally the richest country in the world, even though they were some of the poorest before reform began.
If they just had a more solid human rights record, which is independent of a communist economy, I don't think there'd be any argument to be made.
However, the places with the worlds worst human rights records are nearly all capitalist. So, it's still hard to say.
That's not to mention cuba in particular has been sanctioned to near-death, which again has nothing to do with their economic policy and everything to do with the US trying to control the world.
Comparing countries before and after ignores the effects of technological development. Most countries, excepting those subject to war, crippling sanctions, or other calamities, have experienced improvements in living standards over time.
Looking across all nations, my sense is that the difference between these different economic systems is not particularly obvious at a glance. However, I would love to see a more rigorous analysis along these lines if anyone has one.
Yes, but technological development is usually global, and thus is much easier to exclude from the analysis than being a completely different country with completely different circumstances. Comparing the US to cuba is bafflingly insane, nothing about their circumstances are similar. It is not fair to expect them to be competitive with eachother on any front.
The last time something like china happened where one of the poorest countries in the world became a superpower was the soviet union, the time before that... it never happened before that.
The closest thing to something like that is the US itself, historically.
Marxist leninism has been an undeniable economic success. It's human rights where things get fucked, and even then, often lessso than in capitalist nations, but human rights are separate to economic policy.
Being a superpower isn’t the same as improving the well-being of your citizens. And I personally don’t agree that China is a superpower yet, though they are obviously moving in that direction.
But even if that was true and valid I would like to see a rigorous and complete analysis, not anecdotes. Surely someone has done something like this.
This is touching on something I've been thinking about for a while.
How the fuck does one secure a brand new nation when established super powers wish to see it destroyed. How do you do that without sacrificing rights?
The answer unfortunately is that you can't. The preexisting super powers need to die.