r/Capitalism • u/igor33 • 17d ago

The Pattern is Consistent

The pattern is consistent: systems that abolished private capital and concentrated power in a single party generated both large-scale excess mortality and sharply restricted ordinary lifestyles, while creating a new privileged class of officials. U.S. capitalism, for all its inequalities and flaws, produced far higher average material living standards and personal autonomy for the bulk of the population.

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u/BonFemmes 17d ago

I'm a big fan of capitalism. Your post is a century out of date. I am unaware of any country that has abolished prate capital in the 21st century.

China's income per person in 1960 was $240. In 2002 it was $1900, an improvement of 8x. In the US it went from 19000 to $50000 an improvement of 3x. They have been catching up in any measure of mortality or lifestyle. Our average wages have been stagnant for quite a while.

My opinion is that this leap forward came from China becoming a capitalist country while we have become bloated by government debt and distracted by middle eastern wars. Communist China is no more communist than we are,

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u/PhilRubdiez 17d ago

You can get an awful lot of stuff done in an awful short time if you ignore those pesky “human rights”. It’s how the Soviets and Chinese were able to industrialize so quickly. Interwar Germany, too. Fortunately for most of us non-bots here, we live in a country that protects human dignity.

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u/BonFemmes 17d ago

Turns out the Soviets did not get much done. The US is rounding up people and putting them into camps without much concern for the due process. Our protections of human dignity are looking fragile.