29 ms·
Child mortality was much higher and famines were more common before capitalism, and starvation has been a common feature in every command economy as well
by kxkdodpdl 4y ago
Child mortality was much higher and famines were more common before capitalism, and starvation has been a common feature in every command economy as well
- whitemary 4y agoTechnology improves livelihoods. That much is straightforward. The role of capitalism, however, is more complicated. Capitalism is an extremely brutal state of affairs and the industrial revolution itself was responsible for an incomprehensible number of deaths (see: Primitive Accumulation). And in its more modern forms, capitalism maintains more poverty than it resolves. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primitive_accumulation_of_capital https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primitive_accumulation_of_ca...
- coryrc 4y agoSo you're saying there was more starvation after Deng Xiaoping's capitalist reforms than during the communist era?
- whitemary 4y agoOpposite because in China Mao navigated primitive accumulation so later eras didn't have to. The first fundamental error with the Russian and Chinese revolutions, as Karl Marx warned, was underestimating the difficulty and brutality required to achieve primitive accumulation. Ironically its the same analytical error that Adam Smith made, but in the interest of a different end. For context, Karl Marx condemned revolutionary efforts in pre-capitalist nations for these reasons. This included Russia and China because they were still feudalist states. Karl Marx insisted Germany was the necessary focus.
- notahacker 4y agoI imagine it's more like there is less starvation and hunger in modern mixed economies with their very uncapitalistic welfare states than during the laissez-faire glory years of the Industrial Revolution...