In China, Capitalism is Being Consolidated, Not Socialism
China has a command economy similar to those the US resorted to during WWI and WWII. It is a single party authoritarian state that will likely harness the wealth-generating ability of capitalism more effectively than any other empire in the last five hundred years, imho.
Maybe you missed it, but all those controls in World War 2 resulted in a massive economic decline. By any rational measure, the standard of living in the US, declined under government control.
Maybe you missed it, but all those controls in World War 2 resulted in a massive economic decline. By any rational measure, the standard of living in the US, declined under government control.
I
don't think there was any economic decline during WWII; however, there was a decline in the standard of living during the war years. That changed dramatically when conflict ended:
https://www.quora.com/At-the-end-of...-better-economy-the-United-States-or-the-USSR
"The war’s effects were varied and far-reaching.
"The war decisively ended the depression itself.
"The federal government emerged from the war as a potent economic actor, able to regulate economic activity and to partially control the economy through spending and consumption.
"American industry was revitalized by the war, and many sectors were by 1945 either sharply oriented to defense production (for example, aerospace and electronics) or completely dependent on it (atomic energy).
"The organized labor movement, strengthened by the war beyond even its depression-era height, became a major counterbalance to both the government and private industry.
"The war’s rapid scientific and technological changes continued and intensified trends begun during the Great Depression and created a permanent expectation of continued innovation on the part of many scientists, engineers, government officials and citizens.
"Similarly, the substantial increases in personal income and frequently, if not always, in quality of life during the war led many Americans to foresee permanent improvements to their material circumstances, even as others feared a postwar return of the depression.
"Finally, the war’s global scale severely damaged every major economy in the world except for the United States, which thus enjoyed unprecedented economic and political power after 1945."
We could derive a similar benefit today with a Green New Deal jobs program without destroying Europe and Japan; although, it is highly unlikely any parasite would get rich from such an effort.
The American Economy during World War II
Well..... yeah.... The US's share of world GDP would go up during World War 2, because Europe was destroying itself.
If you and I are making $1,000 worth of product. And you cut off your hand, and start making $500 worth of product, while I get into a fight with the next door neighbors, and make $0 worth of product.....
Your share of GDP is going to be 100%, between the two of us, even though the amount of GDP you produced declined.
Moreover, say that you work super hard, and make a prosthetic hand, and your production goes back up to $1,000, and I stop fighting with my neighbors, and start producing $1,000 again.
Your share of GDP would decline to 50%, even though you doubled your production.
Looking at US's share of GDP is ridiculous. Looking at share of GDP when other nations are at war, is a garbage statistic. Even if our economic policies were the worst in the worlds, we would still have a larger share of world GDP simply because our manufacturing plants and cities were not being bombed.
The war decisively ended the depression itself.
I disagree with that claim. Ask the person who wrote that, on what basis they claim the war ended the depression? There is only one data point that people use to claim the war ended the Depression. Just one statistical number they use to justify that statement.
Unemployment.
Well there is a huge problem with that number. The US government rounded up 12 Million men, and ship them over seas, in a nation of only 130 million people..... hey, ya think unemployment might drop?
How about we just make unemployment illegal, and round up millions of people, and draft them into the military, if you think that's a way to solve economic decline?
On top of that, you had hundreds of people making tanks and guns for the military. Now you might think that's a positive for the economy, but it isn't. Tanks do not improve the lives of average Americans. The people of this country were living under strict austerity. Rationed meat, rationed eggs, rationed clothes, rationed everything. People couldn't buy cars, because all the auto plants, were building military gear.
Let me ask you a question, what is the point of ending a depression or recession? Isn't the whole point to improve the standard of living of the people?
Do we end depressions, and economic recessions, just so you can have graph with a number on it?
No, of course not. The point is to improve the lives of the people. Did that happen? No, during WW2 the standard of living FELL. People had less material wealth.
Even when the war was over, we had a huge housing crisis in the US. How is that even possible? We lost half a million people in war, and when they came back home, there was a massive housing shortage.
It was because of price controls, and government regulation. As soon as government repealed all their command and control regulations, the housing shortage disappeared. Just like how wages started to float again, and prosperity returned to the US.