Quote:
Originally Posted by John21
Yeah, even commies are into it:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion...nt_6243676.htm
Then again, the USSR was growing in a productive sense at the same rate or perhaps a little higher than the US post WWII, at least until they started devoting more and more resources to taking over the world.
I would defer to someone like Tame to comment on the UUSR but my understanding is that despite apparently keeping pace with the US and West in terms of productivity and growth, they were doing so in a way that was not sustainable.
An example would be you and I are neighbours. We seem to enjoy the same middle class life growing into upper middle class. As I buy a new cars, take nice trips with the family, etc so do you.
But I am managing my finances well. I have the income to pay for it. You are using credit cards and piling on deaths and soon it will not only not be sustainable but you will have to cut back.
Instead of cutting back you take over forcibly a neighbours household that is better run than yours. You now control their income making, take their resources and blend your debt in with them. It is a temporary fix but your bad spending habits soon doom you again and force you to do it again.
The point being that it was not the USSR trying to 'take over the World' that was the issue that harmed their productivity. They were doomed on their own on the path they were on. Trying to 'take over the world' was how they were trying to hide the issues within and save themselves.
CHina, thus far has taken a different path. They are genuinely trying to grow their economy and recognize the best way is by focusing on building the Middle Class. That ultimately wealth does Trickle Up if you do that. Something the US realized coming out of WW2 that lead to the greatest prosperity the world has seen but sadly that Republicans have been focused on gutting for the last few decades and instead pursuing more of the current Russian Oligarch system. Something that is gutting the middle class and destroying wealth foundations across America while making the Oligarchs super rich.
It is so short sighted as it it piling money into a select few who already have more than they can spend who mostly offshore it or put it away for generational wealth for their families.