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Soviet Union VS Every Developed Capitalist Country, This is for those who say that Socialism was a failure (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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source https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gdp-per-capita-maddison-2020?stackMode=relative&time=1920..1985&country=AUS%7EAUT%7EBEL%7ECAN%7EDNK%7EFIN%7EFRA%7EDEU%7EGRC%7EHKG%7EISL%7EIRL%7EISR%7EITA%7EJPN%7ELUX%7ENLD%7ENZL%7ENOR%7EPRT%7ESGP%7EESP%7ESWE%7ECHE%7ETWN%7EOWID_USS%7EGBR%7EUSA

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

This graph seems misleading if I'm reading it correctly. This shows the relative rate of growth is faster than other nations. But I'm not even sure how that works because the results vary wildly according to the range of years you filter. Either way, the actual GDP per Capita for the USSR was lower than basically every developed nation throughout its history.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

USSR was completely devastated during WW2 and plunged into the Cold War right after. US sat out the war comfortably and then poured money into rebuilding Europe while USSR had to rebuild all on its own. I'm not sure why you think USSR having lower GDP than western nations is some kind of a gotcha here. They started from a far worse position, and had to develop under duress from the empire. Despite that, they still managed to achieve a much better rate of growth.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Yeah, that's a good point. The USSR was most definitely at a disadvantage compared to the other countries at the time due to circumstances outside its control.

I'm not sure why you think USSR having lower GDP than western nations is some kind of a gotcha here

I'm just not sure I'd consider economic growth to be the most important factor when the overall GDP was lower than other countries. Maybe its economy could have far surpassed the capitalist countries given time, or maybe it would have stagnated at a much lower point - there's no way to know. Which is why I don't think this graph proves very much.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago

Having lower GDP is a direct result of USSR starting at a disadvantaged position. What the graph proves is that the system consistently outperformed western alternatives in the progress it was making.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Hakim has some videos explaining why socialism and communism are better.^[Socialism Is Better Than Capitalism...Right?]^[Socialism is just better, scientifically]

Either way, the actual GDP per Capita for the USSR was lower than basically every developed nation throughout its history.

Sources?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

I agree that Communism is better than Capitalism. I didn't say otherwise. Source is the same as the original poster's.