Comments by "" (@immermitderruhe) on "Why Eastern Europeans HATE Communism" video.

He did say exactly that. But while capitalism doesnt necessarily lead to democracy, you have to take into account that a working, sustainable democracy requires a high standard of living, freedom of speech and the press, rule of law etc... So far capitalism is the only way to achieve all this, while socialist efforts always started or ended up in dictatorships/authoritarian regimes. There are still many flaws in capitalism but capitalist societies are the only ones that allow criticism of their own system in the first place and thus create the possibility to reform and adapt themselves. Capitalism evolved from classic Manchester capitalism and slavery to things like modern Scandinavian societies. In socialists countries however you criticize the government and you get a lot of problems.
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The idea of socialism and communism is not suitable for human societies because it would require a "perfect" human being with no ego and equipped with an ultimate sense of community, plus for a socialist system to prosper you would need altruistic leaders who dont succumb to the temptations of power. All this contradicts the human nature. Capitalism however, while not being perfect at all, at least managed to accept the human nature and I think history showed that democracy and freedom is only possible in countries with a very high standard of living and prosperity. Capitalism (or at least some kind of free market) doesnt automatically lead to democracy and freedom but it is one of its requirements. Russia didnt turn into a democracy due to its history with much less western influences than Poland or Ukraine etc. and its resource curse, which increases the chance of turning into a dictatorship significantly. In socialist systems the state has so much power by definition that sooner or later the government will either take advantage of it to enrich themselves or it will take wrong decisions that will destroy the economy. There is also no incentive to push innovation and competition in a socialist system, so it will take ages until e.g. digital technologies will be developed.
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@ReadTheoryItsNotThatDifficult Human nature is not capitalist, but capitalism embraces human nature more than socialism does. They lived for thousands of years without any economic system as we know it today because this only became necessary with the industrial age. The space race was a result of extrinsic motivation not intrinsic. They wanted to be faster than the Americans. In a capitalist society innovations are mostly a result of the inner competition, not an external enemy. Also the space race was just a show-off thing. They put so much effort and money in this relatively unimportant project, so that the general economy of the USSR suffered and was not capable to develop things that push the nation forward. Along the lines of: “We hardly have any consumer goods, no freedom and hardly any personal rights, but we are the first in space!” It says a lot that the Soviet nostalgists always come up with the space race, which in the long run was just a propaganda program to fight a desperate battle with the West that they could not really afford, just to give the impression that they can compete. In addition, large parts of the economy were based on forced labor and the gulag system. Without the coal from Vorkuta, St. Petersburg would have remained cold in winter. In order to employ people there voluntarily, it would have been necessary to create much better working conditions on site and pay very high wages, but there was no money for this in the USSR.
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