DEBUNKING ANTI-CAPITALIST MYTHS
This document will seek to correct your anti-market bias by giving you a list of resources that debunk anti-capitalist and pro-communist myths spread around the internet.
If you want to cite a source, this should be the format:
* Title of website (Website link)
* Important detail 1
* Important detail 2
Try to make sure the details are a good summary of the article. Please try not to cherry pick parts of the articles. If you stumble across a socialist website that concedes to certain points, remember to type down their bias and talk about what they concede to. This only applies to other left-leaning and liberal views too, but not conservative/libertarian websites. Thanks!
If you wish to cite a reddit/twitter/facebook thread, state where it is from, and cite the sources that the thread uses. This applies to blogs like nintil.com. Also try to archive social media threads/blog posts in case they get deleted in the future.
Do not cite conspiracy websites. These are too unreliable, and this hurts the credibility of the document in general.
Recommended documents and megathreads: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18JgQ6d5A1-lJ2VgMHZTxbM-Guac5osioah8-CLRKSnU/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/16H9ltN0KPiVT1TLvhe9WLFlp1iPcAbuRCv7pMVm_AgY/edit
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1toUEzjJVd_JdPvOvch1yRXp1OxraukTeSCTBvsdfQCM/edit
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17hvyxhJZN4LbhM51cM0MfphSxeUVyW5mp8tky9dtY-Q/edit
Part 1: Socialism
USSR (Soviet Union):
Economy (Unemployment, GDP growth):
* The Soviet Union Series (https://nintil.com/the-soviet-union-series)
* This series seeks to debunk the claim that socialism has worked in the Soviet Union by comparing it to other countries.
* Soviet Union GDP Growth (https://nintil.com/the-soviet-union-gdp-growth)
* By comparing capitalist/mixed economy countries like Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, and Spain, it can be clear that their growth is not that impressive.
* The Soviet Union was NOT the 2nd fastest economy because this was based off cherry picked information.
* USSR had similar GDPpc of Mexico up until 1991
* The Economy of the Soviet Union (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3Jkqqlpibo)
* Made by Keynesians who support modern monetary theory
* At first, the USSR was promising compared to the Tsar regime/liberalization
* Problems: Too optimistic about potential output, misreporting data, lack of real oversight among workers/leaders, fear of stepping out of line
* Hard to punish workers, and lied about output figures to avoid punishments
* Lack of incentives meant that workers only worked bare minimum
* Misallocation of resources (economic calculation problem)
* Russia without Stalin, Venezuela without Chávez, Cuba without Castro (https://nintil.com/1-russia-without-stalin-venezuela-without-chavez-cuba-without-castro)
* Stalin was not needed for growth
* Chavez’s achievements would have been done anyways without socialism
* Cuba failed due to lack of market mechanisms
* Back in the USSR: What life was like in the Soviet Union (https://www.adamsmith.org/research/back-in-the-ussr) and PDF of the book (https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56eddde762cd9413e151ac92/t/5a1ee5b6f9619ac2462a6d43/1511974373818/Back+in+the+USSR-final.pdf)
* Based off Nintil Soviet series
* In 1976 only two thirds of Soviet families had a refrigerator—the USA hit two thirds in the early 1930s. Soviet families had to wait years to get one, and when they finally got a postcard giving notice they could buy one, they had a fixed one hour slot during which they could pick it up. They lost their chance if they did not arrive in time.
* In the same period, the USA had nearly 100m passenger cars. The USSR? Five million. People typically had to wait four to six years, and often as long as ten, to get one.
* There was 30x as much typhoid, 20x as much measles, and cancer detection rates were half as good as in the United States.
* Life expectancy actually fell in the Soviet Union during the 1960s and 1970s.
* The USSR had the highest physician-patient ratio in the world, triple the UK rate, but many medical school graduates could not perform basic tasks like reading an electrocardiogram.
* 15% of the population lived in areas with pollution 10x normal levels.
* By the US poverty measure, well over half of the Soviet population were poor.
* Around a quarter could not afford a winter hat or coat, which cost an entire month’s wages on average (the equivalent of £1700 in UK terms).
* Was Stalin necessary for Russia's economic development? (https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w19425/w19425.pdf)
* The conclusion of the NBER paper is no.
* Does not consider the human tragedy of famine, repression and terror
* Economic policies underperform the counterfactual.
* Should not be used as a success story in development economics
* 99% Literacy and Yet No One Can Read: Diving into a Megapost's Citations (https://www.reddit.com/r/neoliberal/comments/jim8uh/99_literacy_and_yet_no_one_can_read_diving_into_a/)- From reddit.com
* Debunks Soviet economy claims (no unemployment, GDP growth, literacy, education, etc.)
* The Soviets Tried to Run an Economy without Market Prices (https://fee.org/articles/the-soviets-tried-to-run-an-economy-without-market-prices/)
* Soviet economics did not allow for a proper price mechanism or for monetary calculation. The Soviet Union used a system of central planning called material balance planning, which balanced the total output of the economy with the total input, which would in theory allow for the most equitable distribution of resources and eliminate waste. The Soviet experience, marked by chronic shortages and stagnation, was an utter failure.
* Managed by Gosplan, a central planning agency that set levels of production, wages, and prices.
* No markets for determining supply and demand
* While money did exist in the Soviet Union as a medium of exchange for consumption goods, workers were paid according to the “value” of their labor rather than at a wage determined by the market.
* While the use of a monetary medium for consumption goods was more efficient than Mises’s hypothetical example of exchanging “coupons” and calculation in kind, the fundamental problem was the same.
* Gosbank played a role in nearly every financial transaction which occurred in the Soviet Union, which allowed it to monitor enterprises closely and ensure them.
* Gosplan’s plan was being followed properly.
* The American Tractor Comes to Soviet Agriculture: The Transfer of a Technology (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3101161?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents)
* Soviet early capital came from the US
* Catch up growth mostly from America
* Does not prove socialism could work due to Solow growth model
* 'Hidden History' Of Koch Brothers Traces Their Childhood And Political Rise
* https://www.npr.org/2016/01/19/463565987/hidden-history-of-koch-brothers-traces-their-childhood-and-political-rise
*
Food, Healthcare, and QOL (NOTE: Does not cover famines/Holodomor):
* The Soviet Union: The Food consumption puzzle (https://nintil.com/the-soviet-union-food/)
* Debunks FAO data that proves USSR calorie data
* Plasma ascorbic acid concentrations in the Republic of Karelia, Russia and in North Karelia, Finland (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8641247)
* 93% of Russians were Vitamin C deficient, compared to 2% in nearby mixed economy Finland.
* Soviet Utilization of Food: Focus on Meat and Dairy Processing (https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/nceeer/0000-701-1-Gray.pdf)
* Only 60% of
* https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-1-349-05438-1
China:
Maoist Era (1949-1976):
Economy:
* Economics still is not a science (Could Mao improve today's Chinese Economy?) (https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/08/economics-still-is-not-a-science-could-mao-improve-todays-chinese-economy)
* Debunks “study” that claims Mao’s policies would improve the economy.
* The Economy of Communist China (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtzFn73sYmU)
* Video that goes over
*
Deng Xiaoping Era (1977-Now)
Economy:
* Economic Systems: Why is communist China doing so well? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPpmAUk1olA)
* Short video explaining the role of free markets in modern China
* The Economy of Modern Day China (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNhsB0h7gZc)
* The Economy of People’s Republic of China from 1953 (https://www.nber.org/papers/w21397)
* Proves that China did not
* China’s 40 years of agricultural development and reform (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326492289_China's_40_years_of_agricultural_development_and_reform)
Xinjiang:
* Uyghur Pulse (A large collection of Uyghur testimonials read by Volunteers) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxtHBfWaWYQPNgfvdvSDn4A/videos
* Xinjiang VIctims Database: https://shahit.biz/eng/
* Xinjiang Victims Database “Primary Evidence Report: https://shahit.biz/primrep.php
* Uyghur Transitional Justice Database: https://www.utjd.org
* Talking About Xinjiang https://www.talkaboutxinjiang.com
* “Gene Bunin of Xinjiang Victim Database & Uyghur Pulse, on The Xinjiang Genocide: As Armenian and Jewish founders of Asia Art Tours, we are keenly aware of the pain and suffering of Genocide. Right now, the genocide in Xinjiang is one of the most urgent crises the world must face. To shine light on this mass atrocity, I spoke to the founder of the Xinjiang Victim Database, and Uyghur Pulse – Gene Bunin. Gene’s platforms are essential in documenting the Genocide of Xinjiang.” https://asiaarttours.com/interview-gene-bunin-of-xinjiang-victim-database-and-uyghur-pulse-on-documenting-and-stopping-the-xinjiang-genocide/
* “Interpreting Witness Statemen