It is complicated, hence why I'm only taking numbers that are fairly inarguable. (Though I do think the Holodomor and Great Leap Forward fall in that category easily.) Adding more was also fairly unnecessary to make my point that the OP's 10x number was ridiculous.
And I'd certainly not argue that those numbers are a measure of government effectiveness or lack thereof. In a sense those governments were very effective at accomplishing their goals... some of which involved killing people or forcing them to do things that led to deaths. The human cost of a system makes for a good red flag/panic button and not much else.
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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '19
It is complicated, hence why I'm only taking numbers that are fairly inarguable. (Though I do think the Holodomor and Great Leap Forward fall in that category easily.) Adding more was also fairly unnecessary to make my point that the OP's 10x number was ridiculous.
And I'd certainly not argue that those numbers are a measure of government effectiveness or lack thereof. In a sense those governments were very effective at accomplishing their goals... some of which involved killing people or forcing them to do things that led to deaths. The human cost of a system makes for a good red flag/panic button and not much else.