anti-globalization label

Shane Mage shmage at pipeline.com
Wed Apr 10 08:55:40 PDT 2002


Chris asks:
>
>The USSR in the years under Stalin's reign had an estimated GDP growth of
>300% in 30 years (I'm going by stats cited in the Russian business magazine
>Kommersant), even taking into accountthe ravages caused to agriculture by
>forced collectivization, destruction of 40% of the USSR's productive
>capacity by the Nazis, and an additional shock brought about by moving from
>a wartime policy in 1945-1946.
>
>Are there any historical parallels to this rate of growth?

Growth of 300% over 30 years amounts to an annual growth rate of less than 5%. China over the past 30 years has done much, much, better than that--especially considering that Russia in 1923 was far from having regained its 1914 level (reached only in 1926). Of course this also leaves out all the problematical aspects of Stalin-era "statistics."

Shane Mage

"Thunderbolt steers all things."

Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr. 64



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