Comments by "Jake Johnson" (@ElectronFieldPulse) on "How The Real Soviet Rocketmen Changed the World" video.

  1. John L. - No, they did not do "quite well". They used the economic hypothesis of socialism/communism as their primary guiding force in building their country. This resulted in a terribly inefficient, ineffective, and oppressive system which could never hope to keep stride with capitalist countries of similar size and population . I think there is something vital which modern day socialists do not understand. Marx wrote about socialism in a very basic and uninformed manner. An economy is enormously complex, the variables involved are far too complex for one man in the 19th century to grasp. He basically derived his ideas from pathos instead of a solid logical foundation. So guess what happens when you take an Ill researched and rudimentary idea and then model an entire nation on it. Ya, it does not work out so well. I am sure Marx and many communists had ideas about the best version of society, but that is all they were since in practice communism results in misery and oppression. It does best when it is new and can siphon off the resources accumulated previously, but as time goes on the glaring issues with it always lead to decay and collapse. It simply does not work to say, "Everyone should receive x amount of wealth from the state and equality should be engineered". This is the part I think people get stuck on. I have noticed that a lot of modern day socialists are usually graduates from the humanities. They do not understand the vast complexity involved and they believe since it sounds like a more just society, surely it is the best method in practice. Well, it has been tried. And tried. And tried ad nauseam. Every time the naive say. "Well, they just should have done it this way and it would have worked", and then inevitably some country attempts a reformed version it fails again. Yet people won't give up the idea because they do not understand why it is not feasible. They think it is a matter of tinkering, when in reality the most basic premises of socialism do not allow for a healthy and functioning society. The best you can do is provide a strong welfare state built on a capitalistic system, but even small countries like Sweden only found success once they rolled back from their full blown socialism from decades ago. And strong welfare states can only be kept if capitalism is allowed to generate the wealth in the first place. Sweden also has one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the world and one of the most free economies. Capitalism works because it tries to avoid engineering the economy to gain a desired result. It is a theory which understands it's limitations, and it allows for organic growth instead of an entire economy dictated from the top down. Top down economies don't adapt well and massively magnify human error across the whole county since planned economies relied on a small group to plan everything. I mean, I could go on and on about this, but basically Russia screwed itself by turning full blown communist. Sure, it was better than a feudal system in a lot of ways, but it wasnt and will never be a match for capitalism. And this is to say nothing of the inevitable brutality involved and the morality of dictating every citizen's life. It floors me that people are so naive and gullible that they would support socialism in this day and age. I am a biochemist, and I have met a lot of scientists in my life, and it is rarely the scientists of the hard sciences which espouse socialism. It is always the sociologists, philosophers, and other non-scientifically inclined people who buy into the bullshit. It is because they can only see it as an issue of morality and assume it can be made to work well. They are clueless to the actual complexities involved and don't realize that you can't just create equality through simple brute force methods. I mean, you can, but only by dragging the whole economy down and making you vulnerable to other nations or from collapse from within. I ended up writing way too much, but I could still go on about this. Advocate for an increased welfare state if you want, but never go full socialist if you value your time here on earth.
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