Relevant graph of US wealth Inequality with the important historical moments marked. The very moment they knew the USSR was going to fall was the very moment they no longer had to keep up any pretense of good conditions for the American people.
Thinking about how Chomsky said the fall of the USSR was good while looking at these graphs
The USSR of the 1980s was not the USSR of the 1920s.
Yeltsin's takeover was a fucking nightmare, but the theory that they didn't need a new revolution and some serious house-cleaning requires a seriously rose-colored rear view mirror. Gorbachev should have been evidence enough of that.
Nooo this has been knocking about on the internet for a long long time. I've used it so so much though because it's honestly brilliant at demonstrating what a power the very existence of the USSR was and what they provided to their population was in influencing global capitalist treatment of their own populations. I have no idea who the originator was I'm afraid.
It is one of the strongest tools in my toolbox to demonstrate to cut through the bs in people's minds about the USSR.
Good graph. Does anyone have one from the old mod stickies from r/CTH that had both US and USSR food production on it? It was my favourite
Of course FDR would never have been a thing if the USSR wasn't sitting there pointing out that a revolution can succeed.
Agree, it has much more to do with the aftermath of WWII. Same goes for Europe. People angry about "neoliberalism" need to understand that it is just capitalism returning to normalcy. Everytime a leftist says fight "neoliberalism" i cringe because it implies that there is a good way to do capitalism. It usually just sees politics as a giant conspiracy by the rich instead of a historical materialist analysis.
uh actually providing a comfortable life for a few hundred million people for 30 years of its 300 year long existence proves capitalism is the best economic system there is
Just imagine what the world would be like if the USSR had won the cold war
It was also the only thing keeping an average Russian/Eastern European persons standard of living bearable. Look at what’s happened since the coup.
but but but the gdp! it's higher than ever so everyone must be doing great over there
It reminds me of the experiences of black soldiers in vietnam inspiring anti war
neutralizing 'fellow' US military members of your own accord
dare I say, based?
