He lives in France and he’s English I believe. I’m just sure he knows more about Cambodia than boardsocial. That’s not a huge insult (though BS is quite inclined to, shall we say, speculate freely about a lot), pyat is certainly one of the most knowledgeable posters on the forum about history/world politics period.
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So no offense to French people but I’m a pretty huge nerd about recent history. Part of a compulsive desire to understand the context behind what’s going on in the world. It’s been a while but I’ve read an awful lot about that part of the world from 1900-1975. What’s happened since I have a lot less info on, and the end of the Khmer Rouge is actually kind of the endpoint for where I’ve got a lot of intensive study in on… but I have a bunch there.
I know I’m weird. For some reason I find the really dark moments in history super interesting, mostly how and why they happened. The details of the atrocities are way less interesting than how people get to a place where that stuff happens. I know a shitload about the drug war in Mexico, and the history of organized crime generally as well.
Yeah I know… with interests like these you wonder what’s wrong with me lol. I’m just incredibly curious about what exactly causes things to go REALLY sideways and have people start acting in really extreme ways.
When one person kills a dozen people in his basement with a hacksaw it’s an aberration and you can explain it by saying there’s something wrong with that person. When 25,000 people get lined up, shot, and dumped in mass graves a whole bunch of normal people did it. I’m fascinated by how relatively normal people find themselves in that spot. In Mexico right now there are fairly normal people torturing other fairly normal people to death, mutilating their bodies, and stringing them up under overpasses with gigantic banners hanging on them. This is happening way too often for every single person who engages in this behavior to be some kind of monster (although in this case it’s entirely possible that cartels are hiring small groups of monsters to carry out this behavior at an industrial scale, the fact that it might be a counterexample is a lot of why I find Mexico interesting right now). How you get from normality to there I think is well worth understanding… because if you don’t understand it, it can absolutely happen to you.
LOL fair enough. I’ll go back and fix them.
Mainly because they kept the poverty line artificially low.
Officially, the poverty level in the Soviet Union for an urban family of four is 205.6 rubles a month ($339.24 at the officially established exchange rate of $1.65 to the ruble). This is about 51 rubles or $85 a person.
But the Soviet authorities and academics readily admit that the figure, calculated in the 1960’s, is outdated. Most agree that around 75 rubles, or $124, a month a person are necessary for what the Government calls ‘‘minimum material security.’’
Between four and five million Soviet families fall below the formal poverty level, according to Soviet officials, and a full 20 percent of the population lives on less than 75 rubles a month.
A lot of the explanation has to do with technology, a lot is that China has a huge population compared to Russia and a lot that rich countries don’t go communist, poor countries do. And the poverty of a country like China before Communism had a lot to do with capitalism. China had to stop being a place for Europe to extract resources and market for European manufactured goods before they could have their own success with capitalism. Inequality happens between countries not just inside them.
Russia went from a backward feudal country to the second most powerful country in the world with all kinds of advanced technology and universities including people going to space in a very short time. And all that happened when almost twenty percent of their population was killed in the war. Their priorities sucked but Russia during the Soviet period was immensely productive. And capitalism has been pretty awful in Russia.
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Listened to the Iowa victory episode of Chapo, and I said it before, but that episode is a crystal clear example of how Chapo is the left’s equivalent of Rush Limbaugh, even down to the bragging about how they are always right. I like the show, it’s more entertaining than annoying, and they are pushing for politicians and politics that I agree with and generally support. But I think theIr attitude and approach to this is actually toxic in the long run, especially if and when the people that hold their views get real power in this Country.
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In short, in the war against illiberal right-wing fascism, they are the Shadar Logoth of the left.
This is a really bad response. Not only because you are arguably wrong on your point but because your point has nothing to do with what he said.
He was talking about global poverty levels which have gone way down as communism has been replaced by various types of capitalism. Of course correlation is not always causation and this is likely globalization more than anything.
It’s mostly technology and plenty of technology has been created and spread either by communists or by socialist elements of western societies (government and university research).
I don’t think many economists would agree with you. They would nearly unanimously cite trade, I think.
I don’t think you’re right. The green revolution is a great example here. People use it as a victory for capitalism, but the biggest factor was the US Dept of Agriculture under Roosevelt and Henry Wallace developing agricultural technology and giving it away for free to US farmers and to the developing world.
Both of us are right 
I’m sure that’s true.
One thing I think that is underrated quite a bit as a factor in the increase in global trade though is technology. Particularly the intermodal shipping container.
you can get a lot done when you don’t care about human rights and are an oppressive, totalitarian regime. Look at china.
Not that it’s a secret but this will really let my nerd flag fly.
I read this a while back and it was really good.
https://www.amazon.com/Box-Shipping-Container-Smaller-Economy-ebook/dp/B003U2TR5O
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You’d probably geek out at the Panama Canal then. Watching the big super max ships go through was pretty impressive. 39 containers wide. They have less than a foot of clearance with the lock walls - it’s all handled by computerized cables strung to rail-cars that move along with the ship.
There’s one part where you’re driving and the ships are floating in a channel that’s maybe 60’ higher than the road you’re on. It’s surreal.
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I’ve been there. In fact my girlfriend at the time got so mad at me because I wanted to sit and watch for hours. She finally left to do something else so I could watch in peace. 
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I volunteered to be a line handler on a small sailboat and went through it. Really cool experience.
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