[chrisco255]

If you design a system that can only really last for a single generation or two it's not really an appropriate model for a civilization is it?

The USSR had 3 decades of solid growth? That's cute. The U.S. has been booming for hundreds of years at this point.

The US economy is not centrally planned. Government expenditure is 37 percent of GDP, not even a majority. Even much of the government expenditures that do occur are not planned (ie a social security recipient is not dictated how they must spend it).

The USSR from the 20s to 60s made decisions based on what was good for the leaders of the USSR and what would hold power. Stalin ran the Gulag from 1929 through 1953. This was not just a form of modern slavery. People died by the millions. Up to 7 million people died in a Soviet famine from 1932-1933. The U.S. may have had bread lines at the time, but people weren't dying of mass starvation. There were a number of political purges in the 30s that cost a million or so Soviets their lives. Another famine cost 1 to 1.5 million Soviets their life in 1948. Millions more were force relocated.

[leshow]

> The U.S. has been booming for hundreds of years at this point.

Glorifying the early US economic system is not doing much for your argument.

[chrisco255]

I'm speaking to the last several hundred years including colonial times, early 1800s, post Civil War, early and late 20th century and the present. The number one economy in the world for over a century and counting.

Even in recent times, the U.S. has out-paced the EU. The U.S. economy is now 50 percent larger than the EU. There was a lot of talk of China surpassing the U.S. as recent as 8 years ago, however, the U.S. has pulled out ahead as China's growth has stalled. And the USSR no longer exists, but to the extent that you can equate it to Russia, well the Russian GDP is smaller than some individual U.S. states.

[1] https://archive.ph/zygD4 [2] https://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/as-china-s-...

[meiraleal]

> The U.S. may have had bread lines at the time, but people weren't dying of mass starvation.

Only if you consider the millions that suffered mass extermination, incarceration and forced labor in the US not to be humans.

[chrisco255]

Mass extermination never occurred in the United States, what are you even talking about?

Forced labor, in the 1930s through 1960s? No. Just no.

Half of the early U.S. had slavery up til 1865 when a brutal Civil War that cost 600K plus people their lives settled the question. That was all the way back in the 1800s when Russia was still a medieval serfdom indistinguishable from a slave based economy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom_in_Russia), which it had conducted for over 700 years.

[meiraleal]

> Mass extermination never occurred in the United States, what are you even talking about?

You've made me curious about how the American media describes US history. It's interesting that the mass extermination of Native Americans is referred to as the "Indian Wars". It sounds almost patriotic.

> Forced labor, in the 1930s through 1960s? No. Just no.

Right. Because with the Indian Citizenship Act, the US magically transformed into a different country and therefore shouldn't be held accountable for anything that happened before 1930. But Russia...

[carpet_wheel]

Incarceration rates right now in 2023 too. Slavery is outlawed, unless...