> This assumption did not hold "if the entire world is a sh*thole, nobody will be able to tell it's due to communism"? I fail to see what "needed technologic

> This assumption did not hold "if the entire world is a sh*thole, nobody will be able to tell it's due to communism"? I fail to see what "needed technological developments" would West Germany give them. > Cuba is the best example of a successful communist-ish state Successful as in "not completely failed, unlike all the others". Look, I sympathize with their struggles being so close to the US & all, but the fact that this is the best-case for you have should give you a bit of pause, because Cuba is by no means close to being a paradise. To put things in context, both the largest & most populated countries in the world used to be communist. They both had to abandon it & switched to a form of crony capitalism, which, as bad as it is, seems to actually work better for them than the alternative.