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For those who don't understand economics or have a grasp for history, there was economic growth in the USSR. And at one point, the growth rate surpassed the US.
I don't want to search any links but it is my understanding that up to the 70s the USSR was doing pretty good. How? It's all about where the money goes; despite the never ending "rivalry", "cold war" and fake threats, western money was invested in the USSR. Around the 70's globalization and deregulation took off, many countries open their doors for privatization, and profits for the US and western Europe increased; [not] coincidentally that was when Latin America, Africa and Asia started to experience more poverty. Loans and technology to the USSR stopped, and some Asian countries started to rise.
For those who don't understand economics or have a grasp for history, there was economic growth in the USSR. And at one point, the growth rate surpassed the US.
Growth is possible in centralized economies.
No one ever said growth was not possible, it is just that it takes brutality, luck, and eventually it will stall.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mightleavenyc
Why did it collapse?
That is a question that a person could not possibly answer in a forum venue, lol. When they collapsed, they had the second largest economy in the world, and the world's largest military.
Capitalist societies have collapsed also, in fact that is what Imperial Russia was.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Dark Enlightenment
True, I have a very incomplete understanding of economics and the history of the USSR. This thread has done nothing to change that.
Lol, it also will take a lot more than a forum can offer to provide such information.
I don't want to search any links but it is my understanding that up to the 70s the USSR was doing pretty good. How? It's all about where the money goes; despite the never ending "rivalry", "cold war" and fake threats, western money was invested in the USSR. Around the 70's globalization and deregulation took off, many countries open their doors for privatization, and profits for the US and western Europe increased; [not] coincidentally that was when Latin America, Africa and Asia started to experience more poverty. Loans and technology to the USSR stopped, and some Asian countries started to rise.
This is my limited understanding of the situation as well. Minus the whole mass genocide and famine periods of course. Can't forget those.
What the central planners essentially did is take the money and innovation of the more capitalist societies in the west and implement it in their own economies. So to say a command/centralized economy can drive up GDP is very misleading (even though the Soviets had great economic growth sans the WWII years). They were simply using the money and ideas that sprang from the more capitalist economies in the west. It didn't come from within.
The model isn't sustainable though. As you noted globalization and deregulation were inevitable and suddenly the people could see from within as well as from around the world that having a somewhat comfortable life didn't require living under draconian social and political rule. Trying to deregulate and privatize (even somewhat) was (and is) so unnatural.
I wish people understood that today. You can't build a society from the top down and you can't dismantle one that way either. All rights, all matters of socialization begin and end with the individual and his free will. Once you brainwash that away from people over a period of time they become helpless zombies. That's why in many regards Russia was more of a mess post-collapse than during Soviet rule. They still are to a certain extent.
Statism is so unnatural and the communist-State system is a perfect example of how it requires theft (from the "more free" West in the Soviet Union's case) and violence against its own people to keep it going.
Basically, you need the market to determine prices through supply and demand. A central authority can't do it accurately unless they make a lucky guess. They'll overproduce or underproduce, which are obviously both bad for the economy.
The Soviets had to send spies to capitalist countries to find out how much things were supposed to cost. That should say something.
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