Re: GLOBAL KEYNESIANISM

One can posit all manner of things using counterfactuals. What if the
Soviet Union had not been the victim of capitalist encirclement? What if
the United States had not organized Cold War? From the very beginning the
capitalist states stood against the Soviet Union, leading a multinational
invasion shortly after the revolution and keeping up the pressure all the
way though. (And these events were real.)

The states discussed are a selected bunch. I had in mind Cuba, Vietnam,
etc., as well. Every country that was in the bottom third poorest
countries in the world before revolution, and these were at the bottom of
that bottom third, were able to move into the middle-class of nations. In
what respect? This is according to World Bank and IMF data, using quality
of life and inequality measures. Even by bourgeois standards these
countries outperformed the capitalist periphery and were equal to but a
handful of the richest capitalist countries. If one compares Cuba to
France, Britain, especially the United States, then the island is not
going to come off so well. The question is on balance, taking the
world-system into consideration, not carefully selected countries and
counterfactual speculation, were people living in these places better off
before or after? I don't think that is a difficult question to answer.

Andrew Austin
Knoxville, TN