> The Soviet Union accomplished in two decades what it took Britain and the
> United States 200 years to accomplish. And the Soviet Union had a standard
> of living and quality of life that far exceeded most capitalist countries
> before, during, and since. In fact, the socialist world system puts the
> capitalist world system to shame on quality of life and equality
> measures. I don't need to dismiss the metaphysics of human nature to punch
> holes in typical anti-communist propaganda and pro-capitalist mythology.
> The facts do just fine.
>
> Andy
>
Not to mention that in the post collapse period, there has been a
significant decline in practically every indicator you can think of with
respect to standard of living, qaulity of life, equality measures and so
on. Especially on aspects such as gender equality, the Soviet Union
easily puts to the shade whatever has been achieved even in advanced
capitalist countries.
Sanderson like many others tends to generalize the experience of
capitalism in the US to the rest of the world. One just has to take a
look at the way in which capitalism is working outside of the US and
western Europe to know what impact it is having on inequality, quality of
life, gender, children, and on culture and ecology. Considering that we
are on the WSN, should we not also be looking at the contribution of the
rest of the world to the "success" of capitalism in the US rather than
just attribute it to innovation and profit taking behaviour of American
capitalists? In a capitalist world system is it possible to replicate the
growth and development paterns of the US in the rest of the world? Is it
not in fact a function of the increasing poverty and immiserisation of
the peripheral countries?
D.Parthasarathy