☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆
Kin-dza-dza! is a Soviet cult classic. :)
While Deng reforms clearly did introduce a lot of problems associated with capitalist exploitation, it’s important to note positive effects as well. These reforms allowed China to be integrated into capitalist world economically precluding open conflict. USSR was forced to spend around half its GDP on the military, while China was able to devote resources and labor towards productive causes. All of that directly led to things like BRI where China could start exporting its know how to other developing countries. Integration with the west also allowed for mass technology transfer and bootstrapped high tech economy in China. Friendly relations with the west also meant that Chinese students could be educated in top western universities. All of these factors allowed China to become the superpower that it is today.
I grew up in USSR, and one of the biggest challenges was that many intellectuals felt restricted within the system. This bred resentment towards the system as a whole and it meant that you couldn’t let people leave because many of your best and brightest would end up moving to the west. I think China is in a far better position today precisely because it’s possible to have the same quality of life as in the west.
Capitalist excess is now being actively curbed under Xi, but it’s unarguable that capitalism allowed productive forces to be developed very rapidly. Now China is able to build socialism from a place of relative prosperity. So, it seems to me that the reforms had a net positive effect in the long term.
Had there been no Sino-Soviet split, then perhaps USSR and China could’ve created their own economy that could’ve matched the west. However, after the split happened, both were in a much weaker position and were not able to develop to their full potential.
Yeah, r/antiwork is basically a roach motel for leftists. People there just moan about how terrible their conditions are, but don’t actually want to pursue any effective means of organization. It’s just politics of despair where people have no vision for how to improve things.
I honestly don’t see what they can do at this point. Around 60% of energy that Europe was getting from Russia has no replacement. Other countries simply can’t crank up their output by needed amount, and even if that was possible there aren’t enough LNG terminals in Europe to offload it. Europe is going to crash hard this winter.
I grew up in USSR, and it would’ve still been around today if not for US. I personally had to live through the collapse, and I will never forget that nightmare.
I can easily see it getting to 20% within a few months. Once they burn through the stored up gas supplies shit is gonna deteriorate fast.