There is an excellent source of comparative economic data at the The Groningen Growth and Development Centre. Using this data the GDP per head of a range of countries was plotted:
The sudden dip in the communist data for the ex-Soviet Union and Eastern Europe was probably due to a mixture of erroneous reporting of GDP prior to liberation and excessive activity in the defence and non-productive state sectors which disappeared after liberation (See Russia's Comparative Economic Development in the Long Run, Vitali A. Meliantsev, Moscow Lomonossov University)). If this is taken into account then the communist countries scarcely grew at all between 1950 and 1989 in comparison with the West. Since economic liberation these countries are now showing relatively strong growth. Unlike the suspect growth in the communist era, this recent growth is credible because it is based on statistics that are overviewed by organisations like the OECD. China still requires political liberation however, and Russia is in a perilous political state.
Marx worked out that if a state were run like a single corporation with a managing board run by Marxist idealists then everyone would be richer. This is obvious tosh and it is no surprise that it has failed to deliver. It is sometimes said that Marxism has not truly been implemented in any country, this is a false claim because all communist countries have turned the state into a single corporation with a governing board and, inevitably given this constitution, the board or the Chief Executive Officer becomes a tyrant.
So why does Marxism persist? Why are there so many students who ignore the truth? What happens is that a bunch of people join Marxist gangs when they are at university to give themselves a sense of purpose and belonging. Some young people join street gangs, some students join Marxist-Leninist gangs. Street gangs end up in knifings, Marxist-Leninist gangs make entire countries suffer. Communism is a gang mentality that persists into adulthood.
See
Communism and the education system
Marxism and the credit crunch
The sudden dip in the communist data for the ex-Soviet Union and Eastern Europe was probably due to a mixture of erroneous reporting of GDP prior to liberation and excessive activity in the defence and non-productive state sectors which disappeared after liberation (See Russia's Comparative Economic Development in the Long Run, Vitali A. Meliantsev, Moscow Lomonossov University)). If this is taken into account then the communist countries scarcely grew at all between 1950 and 1989 in comparison with the West. Since economic liberation these countries are now showing relatively strong growth. Unlike the suspect growth in the communist era, this recent growth is credible because it is based on statistics that are overviewed by organisations like the OECD. China still requires political liberation however, and Russia is in a perilous political state.
Marx worked out that if a state were run like a single corporation with a managing board run by Marxist idealists then everyone would be richer. This is obvious tosh and it is no surprise that it has failed to deliver. It is sometimes said that Marxism has not truly been implemented in any country, this is a false claim because all communist countries have turned the state into a single corporation with a governing board and, inevitably given this constitution, the board or the Chief Executive Officer becomes a tyrant.
So why does Marxism persist? Why are there so many students who ignore the truth? What happens is that a bunch of people join Marxist gangs when they are at university to give themselves a sense of purpose and belonging. Some young people join street gangs, some students join Marxist-Leninist gangs. Street gangs end up in knifings, Marxist-Leninist gangs make entire countries suffer. Communism is a gang mentality that persists into adulthood.
See
Communism and the education system
Marxism and the credit crunch
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