Ex-Communist countries

Why are countries of the former Communist bloc so poor?

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Rich people don't do revolutions, Einstein.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_therapy_(economics)#Post-Soviet

It killed a lot of people.

What people forget it that thoses were really backward countries in the beginning of XXcentury, what sovietics regimes did was partially catching up. Also the collapse didn't help

Poland? The Baltics were pretty much Nordic-like.
East Germany was already rich. Czech republic was in the HRE and so was Slovenia

Throughout the Cold War, Warsaw Pact countries had absolutely stupid economic policies. They would prioritize steel production over anything else because it was seen as a barameter of a country's success, for example.

The eastern bloc collapsed and capitalist companies swept in like vultures, and once established have continually drained the region of capital because that's how capitalism fucking works.

Capitalist "reforms."

why would this be a problem? It was cold war, you know. you had to be ready to create as many weapons as possible.

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They were poor before communism.
Much poorer that their western counterparts at that time.

Investing in the expansion of the steel industry while your suffer from a lack of basic consumer goods is the epitome of feels over reals, yes.

sure, standing against NATO was just perfect time to abandon everything and start making deodorants

They were plundered of their wealth and their people slaughtered en masse to appease their holy trinity of Marx, Stalin, and the State. When you're a victim of massive genocide, it is absolutely hard to recover

They started poor, capitalism continues

well if you look at history, it turns out people would rather have an abundance of consumer goods and not constantly be shorted / have to go through illegal means to get basic products than not be NATO's bitch

Corruption in the government.
What we need is small government and welfare state.

How bout no

Because the USSR was retarded

Because of capitalism, and also because of socialism. Mainly the former though as the CPSU losing it's proletarian character over the decades ultimately led to stagnation and a lack of political drive to innovate at all. By the end bourgeois elements in the party had enough influence to just destroy the entire state outright. We're still dealing with the effects of the subsequent "communism failed" meme today.

nice opinion, but nato had terrible reputation in countries above. If you look at history, majority of people in none of these countries wanted to join nato

Because socialism makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. You can't start a business in a socialist economy unless you have connections. This mindset continued even after communism ended.

When a society creates too many workers and not enough jobs, those surplus workers become lumpenproles. Lumpenproles don't care about things like taxes and national policy. The ultra-wealthy rewards lumpenproles for their joie de vivre, which reinforces their identities.

The "cultural" purging of individualists and intellectuals, along with the horrendous drug and disease epidemics, wiped out a lot of ambitious people.

The fuck does that mean?


East Germany was a bomb crater.


What the fuck? Are you conflating the Austro-Hungarian Empire with the Holy Roman Empire? And why would being in the Holy Roman Empire mean anything? It was a feudal mess.

And is that why we are now living in the greatest period of wealth inequality in history?

Yes, socialism is when the government gets big and does stuff, which means that we are living in socialusm now!

You must be new here.

not him, but Czechia and Slovenia were indeed a part of HRE

That is where you are wrong, kiddo.
HRE, Imperial city-states and internal trade leagues were anything but feudal. They were mostly democratic and heavily influenced by guilds, not to mention that HRE`s dualistic laws made it more of confederation than feudal monarchy politically.

Go back to building bunkers hoxha

Agreed, the HRE had one of the best systems in place of any country in history imo.

because the background social organization/religious cultural milieu/implicit sexism/ass backwards clan cultures of those nations retarded their economic development. they were also used as vassall states and mines for raw materials. which again is not the basis for a stable society. Russia is relatively wealthy and healthy, same ethnic group, same religious milieu but different social dynamics/economic history

Except it doesn't. The "makes everyone equality poor" makes much more sense despite being wrong. Stick to it.

equaly*

Because the Stalinist bureaucracy restored capitalism. Duh. Listen to David North:
youtube.com/watch?v=bQrM87zrrfQ&t=50s

Why are avowed Marxists always so utterly incompetent when put in charge of post-revolutionary states?

Who?

Why does everyone forget about Yugoslavia's system of self-management and the periods of huge productivity it brought? At one time it was like the fastest growing economy in the world.

I'm from ex-Yugoslavia and this country was not richer before. In fact, after Yugoslavia broke up, it's former Yugoslav republics got poorer not richer.

Direct reason: Corruption
Indirect reason:Communism

the race to the bottom has to be the most vulgar aspect of capitalism

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because communism ruined them