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Can someone debunk the stupid “communism only works on paper” argument? (lemmygrad.ml)
submitted 3 years ago* by to c/comradeship@lemmygrad.ml
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I vaguely remember a user debunking this claim but I cannot find that comment and I don’t remember what post it was on.

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[–] 19 points 3 years ago (1 child)

The USSR went from a semi-feudal backwater that lost WWI and a ton of European territory to winning WWII and putting the first humans in space

Inside of one generation

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  • [+] -30 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    And then it collapsed due to corruption, central planning and budget deficits.

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  • [–] 17 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    And were the people of the former USSR better off?

    Male life expectancy at birth in Russia fell by six years between 1991 and 1994, from an already-low 63.4 years to 57.4 years over that period, an almost unprecedented decrease in life expectancy in three years.Footnote1 Female life expectancy followed a similar but less extreme pattern, falling from 74.2 to 71.1 years from 1991 to 1994

    If your government is better than what came before it and better than what came after it...

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  • [+] -27 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    Well yes, most former Soviet satellite states went into recession because companies where no longer state funded and had to be profitable and compete on the global market (do you know any good cars, computers or electronics from eastern European countries?), government funding went down in all sectors and taxes went up to get the budget back on track which caused mass unemployment. This happened because the previous government was running a huge deficit, and no other states would agree on any trade deals or credits until the finances where back in order.

    Sincerely, someone who was born there long before the 90s.

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  • [–] 21 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    someone who was born there long before the 90s

    Then you must be aware that the vast majority of the people living in the USSR wanted to keep it.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago

    I find it interesting how every single anti-communist was apparently born in the USSR and/or had their family there who all escaped evil persecution.

    Every. Single. Goddamn. One. All of them. They always trot out this argument like some kind of gotcha. They do it so much, and so consistently that it honestly makes me doubt the claim at all. 90% of the time you can go through their comment history and notice how they don't actually talk like a 50-60 year old at all, and in fact talk a lot, lot more like an edgy teenager.

    On the other hand, I doubt someone would ever do something horrible like lying on the internet.

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  • [–] 14 points 3 years ago

    do you know any good cars, computers or electronics from eastern European countries?

    Yeah, but under names like Siemens or Renault. When the USSR was illegally overthrown, their assets were sold to capitalist companies for pennies on the dollar, literal looting. They got absorbed and their name destroyed.

    The USSR was restoring and editing pictures digitally 3 years before Photoshop was ever released (and the best it had in that department was the clone tool) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2PsiJXswiM

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