> It it's been 20 years since the "fall of communism" and "democratic reform"
> in Eastern Europe - enough time to do some historical comparisons. The
> specific question that is on my mind is this:
>
> What is the net gain in economic development and standards of living of the
> vast majority (bottom 80%) of the population during those twenty years as
> compared to similar gains during the twenty year period after the 1917
> revolution (Russia) or the end of WW2 (Eastern Europe)?
>
> It is my impression that the first 20 years of this democratic nonsense
> pale
> in comparison to the first 20 years of communism. Of course backing that
> with data is rather difficult because national accounting system used to
> calculate the GDP is not compatible with material production accounting
> used
> under communism, and standards of living measures are not readily available
> either. I do not have time to do research in this area, but perhaps
> someone
> has some of these figures handy. Any thoughts?
>
> Wojtek Sokolowski
> Maryland
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> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
Didn't Russia just recently achieve GDP parity with where it was when the walls fell?
On the other hand, a lot less people died than 1917-1937. Of course that depends on all sorts of period-specific factors, but perhaps that's what we should take away. There are less clear ways for the economy to grow than there were when Stalin consolidated power.