Wealth is produced, and the money do not disappear (does it actually? my understanding of economy is pretty basic) when you give it out since they spend it as consumer the same way the people you take it from would do.
The money usually does not literally disappear, but what happens if you have too much money in circulation and not enough things to buy is that the money loses value, i.e. things become more expensive. (Attempts to fix this problem by regulating prices typically result in literally empty shops after the few cheap things are sold.) It is related to inflation, but the whole story is complicated.
I don’t see anything “running out” in the few socialist countries out there.
There are many countries in eastern Europe that once had “socialist” in their names and now don’t. And they happen to be among the poorest ones in Europe. The “running out of money” meant that over decades their standards of living were getting far behind the western Europe.
You probably mean Sweden (people who talk about “socialist” countries not running out of money usually mean Sweden, because it’s quite difficult to find another example). I don’t know much about Sweden to explain what happened there, but I suspect they have must less “socialism” than the former Soviet bloc.
(For the purposes of a rational debate it would probably be better to stop using words like “socialism” and instead talk about more specific things, such as: high taxes, planned economy, mandatory employment, censorship of media, dictatorship of one political party, universal health care, basic income, etc. These are things typically described as “socialist” but they don’t have to appear together.)
I think that, as much as having once had “socialist” in their names, may be their problem. They got screwed over by the Nazis in WW2 and then screwed over again by the USSR. I think they’d be poor now whatever their politics had been.
Sweden [...] the former Soviet bloc
Again, the former Soviet bloc is distinguished by features other than socialism—notably, by having been part of the Soviet bloc. And the USSR is distinguished by features other than socialism—e.g., by totalitarianism, by having been the enemy of the US (which was always the richer superpower), etc.
On the other side, it’s not just Sweden—but also, as you say, not exactly hardcore socialism either.
That’s the whole (continental) Europe, not just Eastern.
and then screwed over again by the USSR
By having specific politics imposed on them. So the “whatever their politics had been” is a non sequitur.
And the USSR is distinguished by features other than socialism—e.g., by totalitarianism
If by “socialism” you mean “Western social democracy”, the USSR was never socialist. And if by “socialism” you mean “communism” (which is how the Russians, etc. used the word), totalitarianism is an essential part of the package.
I do not think that was the only variety of screwage inflicted on the Soviet bloc countries by the USSR.
(And I bet imposing a particular political system on a country tends to make it less prosperous than it would have been had it adopted that political system of its own accord—because the people who have to make it work will resent it, be less motivated to make it work well, etc. So even if that were all the USSR did, I’d still expect economic damage independent of the (de)merits of the particular system they imposed.)
If by “socialism” you mean [...]
Actually I mean something more like “that which Western social democracies have more of than Western free-market capitalist countries, and avowed communist countries have more of again”. Or like the big bag of ideologies you’ll find on Wikipedia.
And I bet imposing a particular political system on a country tends to make it less prosperous than it would have been had it adopted that political system of its own accord
Counter-example: post-WW2 Japan (and, arguably, Western Germany as well).
Generally speaking, I’d say that “people who have to make it work will resent it” is too crude of an approach. Some people will, but some people will see it as an excellent opportunity to advance. In the case of the Soviet Union itself it’s unclear whether you can say that the political system was “imposed”—it’s not like the population had a free choice...
Yup, I’ll agree that Japan did very well after WW2 despite having democracy imposed on it. Did it do better or worse than it would have had it embraced democracy autonomously, though?
(I doubt that’s answerable with any confidence. Unfortunately we can’t figure out how much evidence the economic difficulties of Eastern Europe are against socialist economic policies without taking some view on how damaging, if at all, it is to have a political system forced on you.)
too crude
Oh yes, but what else can you expect when we’re trying to deal with big knotty political questions in short forum comments?
Unfortunately we can’t figure out how much evidence the economic difficulties of Eastern Europe are against socialist economic policies without taking some view on how damaging, if at all, it is to have a political system forced on you.
Given the rather clean comparison of East and West Germanies (no one asked any Germans what kind of political system would they like), I don’t understand why you are having problems figuring this out.
The DDR was AIUI imposed on much more drastically than the BRD. It was an ally of other countries that were more prosperous and powerful to begin with (most importantly the US, as Viliam’s comment about the Marshall Plan points out) whereas the DDR was their enemy.
For the avoidance of doubt, I do agree that there is very good evidence that Soviet-style communism is a less effective economic system than Western-style democratic lightly-regulated market capitalism. (And yes, the two halves of Germany make a nice comparison.) But from there to “all possible forms of socialism are bad for you” is not, so far as I can see, a step warranted by the evidence.
(The actual issue in this thread seems to have been whether the “First World” has the resources to provide everyone with ‘a “decent” life’ without running out. Lycce didn’t propose any very specific way of trying to do this, but I don’t have the impression he was wanting Soviet-style communism.)
Basic income is historically no socialist idea. It’s a liberal idea. Milton Friedman came up with it under the name of negative taxation.
Billionaire Götz Werner did a lot to promote the concept. In Germany the CDU (right-wing) politician Dieter Althaus spoke for it. YCombinator who invests into research in it is also no socialist institution.
Socialism is about workers rights. People who don’t work but just receive basic income aren’t workers. The unemployed aren’t union members. Unions generally want that employers take care of their employees and believe that employeers should pay a living wage and that it’s not the role of the government to pay low income people a basic income.
The money usually does not literally disappear, but what happens if you have too much money in circulation and not enough things to buy is that the money loses value, i.e. things become more expensive. (Attempts to fix this problem by regulating prices typically result in literally empty shops after the few cheap things are sold.) It is related to inflation, but the whole story is complicated.
There are many countries in eastern Europe that once had “socialist” in their names and now don’t. And they happen to be among the poorest ones in Europe. The “running out of money” meant that over decades their standards of living were getting far behind the western Europe.
You probably mean Sweden (people who talk about “socialist” countries not running out of money usually mean Sweden, because it’s quite difficult to find another example). I don’t know much about Sweden to explain what happened there, but I suspect they have must less “socialism” than the former Soviet bloc.
(For the purposes of a rational debate it would probably be better to stop using words like “socialism” and instead talk about more specific things, such as: high taxes, planned economy, mandatory employment, censorship of media, dictatorship of one political party, universal health care, basic income, etc. These are things typically described as “socialist” but they don’t have to appear together.)
I think that, as much as having once had “socialist” in their names, may be their problem. They got screwed over by the Nazis in WW2 and then screwed over again by the USSR. I think they’d be poor now whatever their politics had been.
Again, the former Soviet bloc is distinguished by features other than socialism—notably, by having been part of the Soviet bloc. And the USSR is distinguished by features other than socialism—e.g., by totalitarianism, by having been the enemy of the US (which was always the richer superpower), etc.
On the other side, it’s not just Sweden—but also, as you say, not exactly hardcore socialism either.
That’s the whole (continental) Europe, not just Eastern.
By having specific politics imposed on them. So the “whatever their politics had been” is a non sequitur.
If by “socialism” you mean “Western social democracy”, the USSR was never socialist. And if by “socialism” you mean “communism” (which is how the Russians, etc. used the word), totalitarianism is an essential part of the package.
I do not think that was the only variety of screwage inflicted on the Soviet bloc countries by the USSR.
(And I bet imposing a particular political system on a country tends to make it less prosperous than it would have been had it adopted that political system of its own accord—because the people who have to make it work will resent it, be less motivated to make it work well, etc. So even if that were all the USSR did, I’d still expect economic damage independent of the (de)merits of the particular system they imposed.)
Actually I mean something more like “that which Western social democracies have more of than Western free-market capitalist countries, and avowed communist countries have more of again”. Or like the big bag of ideologies you’ll find on Wikipedia.
Counter-example: post-WW2 Japan (and, arguably, Western Germany as well).
Generally speaking, I’d say that “people who have to make it work will resent it” is too crude of an approach. Some people will, but some people will see it as an excellent opportunity to advance. In the case of the Soviet Union itself it’s unclear whether you can say that the political system was “imposed”—it’s not like the population had a free choice...
Yup, I’ll agree that Japan did very well after WW2 despite having democracy imposed on it. Did it do better or worse than it would have had it embraced democracy autonomously, though?
(I doubt that’s answerable with any confidence. Unfortunately we can’t figure out how much evidence the economic difficulties of Eastern Europe are against socialist economic policies without taking some view on how damaging, if at all, it is to have a political system forced on you.)
Oh yes, but what else can you expect when we’re trying to deal with big knotty political questions in short forum comments?
Given the rather clean comparison of East and West Germanies (no one asked any Germans what kind of political system would they like), I don’t understand why you are having problems figuring this out.
The DDR was AIUI imposed on much more drastically than the BRD. It was an ally of other countries that were more prosperous and powerful to begin with (most importantly the US, as Viliam’s comment about the Marshall Plan points out) whereas the DDR was their enemy.
For the avoidance of doubt, I do agree that there is very good evidence that Soviet-style communism is a less effective economic system than Western-style democratic lightly-regulated market capitalism. (And yes, the two halves of Germany make a nice comparison.) But from there to “all possible forms of socialism are bad for you” is not, so far as I can see, a step warranted by the evidence.
(The actual issue in this thread seems to have been whether the “First World” has the resources to provide everyone with ‘a “decent” life’ without running out. Lycce didn’t propose any very specific way of trying to do this, but I don’t have the impression he was wanting Soviet-style communism.)
Another huge difference was the Marshall Plan.
Basic income is historically no socialist idea. It’s a liberal idea. Milton Friedman came up with it under the name of negative taxation.
Billionaire Götz Werner did a lot to promote the concept. In Germany the CDU (right-wing) politician Dieter Althaus spoke for it. YCombinator who invests into research in it is also no socialist institution.
Socialism is about workers rights. People who don’t work but just receive basic income aren’t workers. The unemployed aren’t union members. Unions generally want that employers take care of their employees and believe that employeers should pay a living wage and that it’s not the role of the government to pay low income people a basic income.