[lbo-talk] Comparative post-Sovietology, 20 years on

[dredmond at efn.org]

On Fri, March 12, 2010 5:27 am, Doug Henwood wrote:


> Well, Russia's only 10% above 1989. That rather sucks.

I don't mean to diminish in any way the neolib looting of the former USSR
from 1990-1998, which was one of the monstrous crimes of the 20th century,
but 15% of Soviet GDP was military output. Russia's military spending is
around 2.7% of GDP today, so civilian output per person -- as opposed to
tanks you can't drive and bullets you can't eat -- is more like 20% higher
than 1989.

-- DRR