[ryandrake]

This is a false dichotomy: Either your country is an "economic powerhouse", or you're living in a mud hut, with nothing in between. A country can be a good, decent place to live, where people's basic needs are taken care of, with opportunities for modest life improvements for those who want them, without being an economic powerhouse (and all of the bad that comes with that).

[WalterBright]

Yugoslavia's economy doesn't sound so successful:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_Socialist_Feder...

High unemployment, billions in US foreign aid, etc.

[saubeidl]

> Despite facing numerous challenges, including political instability and external pressures, the Yugoslav economy achieved significant growth and modernization during its existence, with a particularly strong emphasis on education, health care, and social welfare

I'm not sure we're reading the same article then.

Here's some archive footage from 60's Yugoslavia for your reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXr5aKZ8mps

Sure doesn't look like people living in squalor in their mud huts.

[WalterBright]

You need bricks to make a house. Where are you going to get the bricks from? You need lumber to build a stick frame house. How are you going to saw the lumber? Where are you getting the steel for the saws? Where are you getting the nails from?

Those all come from economic powerhouses.

The steps from mud huts to modern buildings came from economic powerhouses.

[saubeidl]

All of those were made in highly industrialized Yugoslavia. Maybe they are an economic powerhouse by your definition then?

[nec4b]

Only some parts were industrialized. Most of the the best companies were existing before Yugoslavia. They were nationalized after the revolution, the owners killed or they escaped to the west. Very little new industry was developed by the regime itself.

[ryandrake]

I didn't see any mud huts in that article.

[WalterBright]

Yugoslavia was getting substantial foreign aid money. That means their economy could not sustain their standard of living.

[saubeidl]

I would argue the foreign aid was part of their economic strategy - geopolitically coercing the two Cold War blocks was a major industry :-)