Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.

We didn't try communism as far as I know. We hunted it down and murdered it in its cradle if I'm reading the CIA declassified archives correctly.

Communists having killed of 100 to 140 million people is sufficient reason to hunt them down.

But unfortunately there are still plenty of useful idiots, the same kind that propped up Mao, Pol Pot and Stalin.

We kill people all the time, what's the difference? Isn't it a sovereign nation's prerogative to do whatever they want? That said, it is our prerogative to be nosy and violently mess with other people's affairs too so..

> Communists having killed of 100 to 140 million people is sufficient reason to hunt them down.

How many have democracies killed?

It’s not like-for-like but how do we compare?

I would read that meta study. Especially if they verify and compare methods.

Why is every HN thread glazing communism now?

Are people that broken nowadays?

boo hoo I dont have the new iphone the moment it release.

Bish I was on PS1 until 2004.

Ask East Germans, Poland, Lithuania, Lativa, Estonia etc if communism or capitalism is better. I'll wait. :)

Glazing? I stated an historical fact. What doesn't math for me is why we care so much what kind of economy other people decide to have. Eastern Europe isn't soviet anymore obviously. They can make their own choices.

The Russian empire tried communism. It was better than what they had before or since.

The Chinese tried communism. It worked far better for them than what they had before.

> The Russian empire tried communism. It was better than what they had before or since.

No, it was not better. Quite objectively.

By what metrics? Life expectancy rose during communism and fell afterwords. Are you seriously going to try and argue it was better during the Czarist times?

Russia lost nearly 2 decades of development post-WWI. And had a widespread hunger in 1930-s with 4-8 million people dead (we _still_ don't know the accurate number).

Even just looking at the industrial growth rates, the socialistic economy of the USSR was inferior to many capitalistic economies starting from the same base. E.g. South Korea or Japan.

Your data about life expectancy is also plainly wrong: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.MA.IN?locat...

You are willfully missing the point. You can’t compare Russia to South Korea to claim communism bad. Russia has and will screw up every system it tries. You need to compare communist Russia to capitalist Russia. There the comparison looks much less favorable.

Also your graph proves my point. The giant drop in life expectancy is when it transitioned from communism to capitalism.

> You are willfully missing the point. You can’t compare Russia to South Korea to claim communism bad.

Why? I absolutely can. DPRK vs South Korea is an even better example.

> Also your graph proves my point. The giant drop in life expectancy is when it transitioned from communism to capitalism.

Well, duh. And capitalism _swiftly_ outpaced the previous rate. As somebody who experienced Soviet dentistry and medicine first-hand, I'm not at all surprised.

Sure then I can compare China to Somalia to claim capitalism bad.

DPRK is a chinese buffer state run by a cult of personality where South Korea is a strategic allied US country. Like yes I too would take South Korea’s position? It has nothing to do with capitalism.

Did it? Doesn’t look too swift to me. Also why not compare Chinese life expectancy now to before communism? Looks pretty good.

In the opinion of the champaign socialists in the West. In the opinion of people who lived under that regime... Not so much.

You think life and the Czars or under Czar Putin is better?

The Iron Curtain was a real thing, as was the Berlin Wall. Successful social and economic systems do not need to execute their own citizens for attempting to escape.

How did Russia fair under the Czars? How are they fairing now?

Automation makes full employment detrimental if not outright impossible.

Say before tractors it took 100 men to farm enough for 1000 people.

With tractors 20 men can farm for 1000.

With automation 1 man can farm for 1000 if not significantly more.

Open Source Robo Communism is the way to go imo. Sure a handful of engineers have to maintain the robots, and build new ones. And a few jobs will remain human only.

But we could easily get to 80% of the population being free to make art and dance

It would be difficult for us as humans to get a better system. we are too chaotic