The rise of socialism

mij

That sounds more like Communist East Germany.

Pacifico

So I am wrong again, your as bad as my menopausal wife who can argue black is white until I actually begin to think that she is right [emoji849]

I think it must be Pimms o'clock, bye [emoji6]

mij

But I am right. [emoji41]

Pacifico

Yes dear [emoji8]

Toko Black

Funny night tonight, we have the site owner berating Brexit voters because Turkey is a backward country.

kilvil

Remoaners v Brexiteers & Atheists v creationists...who would want to be a mod [emoji3]

mij

Or perhaps Socialism is just impractical - it might sound good to young schoolboys but out in the real world..

Bl4ckGryph0n

Sounds good to me and I'm in my 60's, I think I'm in the real world apart from when I'm in the virtual world that is [emoji3]

mij

If you are in your 60's then you should have enough experience to know that wherever socialism has been tried it has flopped - in not one single case in over a 100 years has it been a success.

Surely that tells you something?

kilvil

Ok, I had to come back to this.

Your position makes no sense.

West Germany was initially supported by the USA with the Marshall plan. This ran from 1948 to 1952, and saw West Germany receive about $1.4bn, which is about $14bn today. Thereafter, all their success was based on their hard work and their superior economic model.

East Germany was the most successful of the Soviet Bloc economies, but lagged massively behind West Germany. The wall that was built was to prevent people fleeing to the west for a more prosperous and free future.

South Korea had no direct financial assistance like the Marshall Plan. Their economic success has been based on investing in skills and innovation plus their superior economic model of capitalism.

North Korea has received significant aid, being unable to feed itself reliably. It's economy is a complete basket case with state ownership, collectivised farms, etc under their heavily socialist model.

Together the split Germanies and Korea's are the closest we can get to an experiment to try running from the same starting point and see which economic model is more successful.

And it is completely unequivocal. The capitalist countries delivered far superior living standards than their socialist counterparts.

The other great example of how capitalism delivers is China. Since they moved towards capitalism, the country has grown much richer and living standards have shot up on the whole.