Question about communism

[trefoil]

Quote from Tsing Tao:

wtf...communism? Russia isn't communist anymore, you ignoramus!

it's a damned shame that people can post on the internet without an IQ check.

Yeah, this is confusing.

A short history lesson: communism in Eastern Europe fell apart in 1989 or maybe 1990, when the Berlin Wall came down. All the eastern European countries were freed. Ain't no such thing over there anymore.
Russia's troubles are from a different source: a ton of mineral wealth, like oil and natural gas, that distorts the economy towards commodities. Not entirely of course; not nearly as bad as Saudi Arabia, for instance. Still, oil can be a curse.
China never had an outright overthrow, they just sort of decided to have, I suppose, "capitalism with Chinese characteristics", or something.

 

[trendlover]

Quote from Tsing Tao:

wtf...communism? Russia isn't communist anymore, you ignoramus!

it's a damned shame that people can post on the internet without an IQ check. [/QUOTE
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Tao, I think chartman poster know this but he ask how in the very short time can this country have billionaires.

 

[phenomena]

LOL!!! You're joking right? You are just being a smart ass right?? You do know Russia hasn't been "communist" since the Berlin Wall came down, right??? Pls tell me you were joking...

Quote from chartman:

"Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov on Monday unveiled a new hybrid car that is due to come on the market in 2012."

Would someone tell me how there can be billionaires in communisn countries such as Russia and China? It appears like they may have a socialist private sector like the USA.

 

[Martinghoul]

Quote from trendlover:

Quote from Tsing Tao:

wtf...communism? Russia isn't communist anymore, you ignoramus!

it's a damned shame that people can post on the internet without an IQ check. [/QUOTE
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Tao, I think chartman poster know this but he ask how in the very short time can this country have billionaires.

Simple, it's by looting the corpse of the Soviet Union and its infrastructure (poor though may it have been). It's not like these productive fixed assets got created overnight. They existed for years and if you were smart, ruthless and lucky you were able to take control of them to enrich yourself.

China was different, thanks largely to Deng Xiaoping.

 

[trefoil]

Looting is a short term sort of thing.
Those assets are still producing, and twenty years later that wouldn't be true if someone weren't taking care of them. I'm a little surprised at the shallowness of that response.

 

[Martinghoul]

Quote from trefoil:
Looting is a short term sort of thing.
Those assets are still producing, and twenty years later that wouldn't be true if someone weren't taking care of them. I'm a little surprised at the shallowness of that response.

Huh? So when in 1928 and onwards in the Soviet Union, during collectivization, land was taken from the peasants, often against their will, and given to the collective farms, that wasn't looting? 'Cause, you know, this land was still producing while it was in communal ownership twenty years later.

It's a bit silly to say that looting isn't looting, if you take care of the property after you've obtained it.

 

[phenomena]

It's called "critical theory" by Marxists. To summarize, any though or conclusion which supports Marxist theory is "rational", anything which criticizes it is "irrational".

Quote from Martinghoul:

Huh? So when in 1928 and onwards in the Soviet Union, during collectivization, land was taken from the peasants, often against their will, and given to the collective farms, that wasn't looting? 'Cause, you know, this land was still producing while it was in communal ownership twenty years later.

It's a bit silly to say that looting isn't looting, if you take care of the property after you've obtained it.

 

[CaptainObvious]

Quote from phenomena:

It's called "critical theory" by Marxists. To summarize, any though or conclusion which supports Marxist theory is "rational", anything which criticizes it is "irrational".

Kind of like trickle down theory.

 

[Tsing Tao]

Quote from trendlover:

Quote from Tsing Tao:

wtf...communism? Russia isn't communist anymore, you ignoramus!

it's a damned shame that people can post on the internet without an IQ check. [/QUOTE
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Tao, I think chartman poster know this but he ask how in the very short time can this country have billionaires.

then "chartman" should go read a history book and try to learn something from a source other than YouTube once in a while.

essentially, when Putin came to power, he told all of the oligarchs that had controlled the state's industries (oil, rail, military, transportation, etc) this:

"i know you have stolen all of the country's assets and businesses under Mikhail. i could come after you for this, but i wont. if you want to run them, run them. but stay out of politics. if you try to enter politics with your money and power, i will destroy you."

oddly enough (or maybe not so odd because russians are not that creative when it comes to first names) it was another Mikhail that didn't listen to him and ended up paying the price for it.

 

[Martinghoul]

Quote from CaptainObvious:

Kind of like trickle down theory.

Use of generalizations and "theories" is hardly ever a good thing.