anti-globalization label

[Shane Mage]

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