A top economist has joined the growing list of China’s elite to have disappeared from public life after criticizing Xi Jinping, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

Zhu Hengpeng served as deputy director of the Institute of Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) for around a decade.

CASS is a state research think tank that reports directly to China’s cabinet. Chen Daoyin, a former associate professor at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, described it as a “body to formulate party ideology to support the leadership.”

According to the Journal, the 55-year-old disappeared shortly after remarking on China’s sluggish economy and criticizing Xi’s leadership in a private group on WeChat.

  • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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    If you think the Chinese economy is bad now, wait 15 years. No amount of sending economists to the gulag will hide this disaster.

    Edit: tankie downvotes are like nectar of the gods to me. Your precious CCP will wither like a plant in the desert.

    • ThirdWorldOrder@lemm.ee
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      I’ve already been banned from Hexbear. Bunch of assclowns over there.

      Edit: and now lemmygrad

          • barsquid@lemmy.world
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            That’s easy mode, since Rule 2 is basically “don’t write a fact about China.”

            • ThirdWorldOrder@lemm.ee
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              They are cosplay commie instances, and they all live in western countries especially the USA.

              I browse by all and don’t usually check what instance I’m commenting in. They will swarm like fire ants if you don’t chirp like them. They also have very thin skin so I don’t think they would make good comrades if they ever reach their Utopia.

              I won’t even get into the Hexbear because that’s too easy, but look at the mods for USA at .ml

        • Shard@lemmy.world
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          Arbitrary bans from overly sensitive mods? Straight to Jail.

          Made a comment about tankies in lemmy getting mad over some news about China getting hit with influence ops by the US. Believe it or not, ban.

          • ThirdWorldOrder@lemm.ee
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            It’s okay man, it takes me a few seconds to scroll through all my bans. It’s funny because all these pro China dweebs are living in the USA. Can’t even commit to the bit and just sit there all day posting anti USA or western stuff. They are obnoxious.

            • barsquid@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              They are privileged children sheltered from reality by mommy and daddy’s money.

      • Arn_Thor@feddit.uk
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        Lots of people, especially the Chinese. The sentiment about work, investment, economic prospects, consumption are all quite bad. The central bank is cutting rates. Just today the government dipped their toes into the helicopter money game. The only thing keeping the party going is exports

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        92 upvotes would suggest a lot of people.

        But everything you could say about China rings just as true in Europe, in Japan and Korea, in India, in Russia…

        Global populations are heading for a heavy sag, but westerners only know how to heckle the Evil Foreigners.

        • volodya_ilich@lemm.ee
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          Funny because I’m European, and the GDP per capita levels of most EU countries are at 2008 levels.

          As for a population pyramid, China will face the same problem as other countries as you say, possibly more magnified.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            EU countries are filling up with war and climate refugees. And… 2008 is one hell of a year to pick as your benchmark.

            • volodya_ilich@lemm.ee
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              Yeah, blame the immigrants. Very .world thing to do lol. Taking Germany, for example, according to Wikipedia, 0.17% population growth per year between 2010 and 2020 doesn’t seem too great for me, compared to China’s yearly >4% GDP growth for example they’d reduce per-capita growths by an insignificant amount. I’m European myself, and I can tell you that the lack of GDP per capita growth between 2008 and 2024 isn’t due to population reasons either, and I’m guessing it’s the same for the bigger EU economies like France,Italy and Spain but feel free to correct me otherwise.

              2008 as my benchmark is exactly my point: the European economy has only now economically recovered from the effects of its own self-imposed policy of austerity and deprivation of worker rights and welfare, without having restored said rights or welfare to pre-2008 levels. And we see countries like the UK under “labor” administration falling to the same policy again as soon as they enter the government. In the meanwhile, without falling into such policy (although without many significant victories for welfare and labor AFAIK), China has grown its per-capita GDP threefold since 2008.

              So no, I don’t think “Chinese economy looks bad”, I wish my European country’s economy would mimic a fraction of the Chinese growth actually

        • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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          Even then, it isn’t healthy, just healthier. The USA is still going to going to experience economic issues of a growing elderly population, it just won’t be as bad.

          • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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            The US have the benefit of essentially limitless immigration that they can adjust at will. On the other hand, China’s leadership, being Han supremacist, is not receptive to immigration at all.

            • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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              Immigration definitely helps, especially compared to China. I’m just noting that there will still be some decrease in the ratio of retired workers to current workers.

            • rammer@sopuli.xyz
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              The US have the benefit of essentially limitless immigration

              Except that even in the Americas the population is declining. There is a limit to it. The US can outlast many other countries because of immigration but it too has to face the same problem as everyone else.

              • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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                Not really. They are the #1 immigration destination. If the US runs out of potential immigrants that means every other country is far worse off. This game is like the old joke about outrunning a bear: you don’t need to run faster than the bear — you only need to be faster than the guy next to you.

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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              The US have the benefit of essentially limitless immigration

              glances at US immigration policy

              Does it?

              China’s leadership, being Han supremacist, is not receptive to immigration at all.

              Wit drier than a lint trap.

              • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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                Coming from one of the foremost resident tankies here, that’s a glowing compliment. Thank you.

              • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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                Does it?

                People still pay upwards of $10,000 US to get smuggled into the country that they will only work in for 4 years as basic farm and factory workers in a house of 20 people.

                The world is a mess and America is the gold mines of california with no gold in it. But a lot of people are getting rich selling immigrants the shovels.

                • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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                  People still pay upwards of $10,000 US to get smuggled into the country that they will only work in for 4 years as basic farm and factory workers in a house of 20 people.

                  You’re just describing human trafficking. This is modern slavery. Might as well brag about all the Africans who moved here in the 18th and 19th centuries.

                  The world is a mess and America is the gold mines of california

                  Who can forget the huge influx of East Asian immigrants flooding into the California gold mines to be worked to death in the mines? Another excellent example of American prosperity.

          • Shard@lemmy.world
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            This is the new normal for highly developed economies. The best they can hope for is a 1 to 1 replacement of their population. We’re not likely to see another baby boom occur.

            We’re not going to see a typical population pyramid any more. Because that means a large infant death rate and either war, disasters or a massive suicide epidemic cutting away the young adult population to get the pyramid shape.

            • zbyte64@awful.systems
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              Given that the amount of habitable land will decrease causing mass migrations, you don’t need a 1 to 1 ratio to maintain a population size.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            it just won’t be as bad.

            glances at Ferguson

            glances at Columbia

            glances at the NYC subway

            How bad are we talking?

          • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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            Basically, yes. The sides are nearly parallel, which is great. Compare with China’s, which forms a steep V. Once GenX hits retirement age they are completely screwed. The CCP’s recent push for “traditional family values” and increased birth rates is no coincidence.

      • Eheran@lemmy.world
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        The birthing rates are only dropping, in 15 years all of those people will be to old to work but there are not nearly enough to replace them.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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      I had the most hilarious discussion with a Tankie about China a while back. They refused to accept that China is pretty much communist in name only. I pointed out that they had billionaires, privately-owned companies, a stock exchange and private property, meaning you can earn capital in China.

      The Tankie actually said something on the lines of, “If you would JUST READ MARX you would know that earning capital is a fundamental cornerstone of communism!”

      • volodya_ilich@lemm.ee
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        The Tankie actually said something on the lines of, “If you would JUST READ MARX you would know that earning capital is a fundamental cornerstone of communism!”

        I’m a communist who doesn’t want to call China a communist country, so I don’t really agree with the person that you were talking to, but your second paragraph does show you haven’t researched communism or its history. The debate of whether societies need to undergo capitalist capital accumulation first to enter communism is about as old as communism, and the history of communism is full of examples of this. It’s the ideological reason why the Russian Socialist Democratic Labor Party split into two wings: the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks, the former believing that the Russian Empire had to undergo capitalism first in other to become communist, and the latter wanting to implement socialism to the primitive almost feudalist Russian empire. Some similar split happened more discreetly inside the Communist Party of China, with Mao implementing socialism directly to the extremely underdeveloped Chinese society, and later Deng Xiaoping opting for the more market-socialism (known now to many as "socialism with Chinese characteristics).

        So you may or may not agree whether china is communist, but from your comment it’s clear that you’re very oblivious to the historical and ideological reasons for the argument as to whether china is or isn’t a socialist country and whether they’re on the path to it. It’s good to discuss things and to have opinions, but please get informed before dismissing other people’s opinions on topics they’ve probably dedicated more time than you to studying.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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          So you may or may not agree whether china is communist, but from your comment it’s clear that you’re very oblivious to the historical and ideological reasons for the argument as to whether china is or isn’t a socialist country and whether they’re on the path to it.

          Weird how this path went from a communist country under Mao to a capitalist one under Xi. I guess it goes back again?

          How exactly do you achieve communism via billionaires, a stock exchange, private ownership, etc.? That’s ludicrous.

          • volodya_ilich@lemm.ee
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            I’m not myself trying to make the assertion that china is communism or that it will achieve communism, I’m saying that what you consider “ludicrous”, has been a hotly debated topic for the past 100 years with many proponents on both sides, many of them with much more knowledge of socialism and revolutions than you or I possess.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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              Yes. I stand by my statement that it is ludicrous to go from no private property to private property and still call yourself communist.

              • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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                No, no, you see, people who Read Theory™ have taken a side, therefore, the position is valid. Like how the value of the holsum Khmer Rouge is debatable instead of gruesomely apparent!

              • volodya_ilich@lemm.ee
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                And I’m saying that you have clearly not dedicated much time to thinking about or studying the issue. I’m a Marxist-Leninist, so I’m not very supportive of Dengism, but if you listen to Dengists and Mensheviks they will tell you that China still has a communist party in power (as does Vietnam and as does Laos) whereas the former USSR has a capitalist proto-fascist in government. Only time will tell who’s really right, and whether china shifts to a less market-socialism society and more towards a democratic centrally planned economy in the hands of the workers and the state.

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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                  Do show me where Marx said that the path to communism is eliminating private property and the ability to accrue capital and then bringing it back again.

                • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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                  I’m not saying China isn’t a country, I’m just saying it’s hotly debated whether or not it should be called west Taiwan. Only time will tell whether the CCP admits defeat and hands over control in line with their one China policy.

                  Man, making shit up is fun.

        • barsoap@lemm.ee
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          If the Bolsheviks didn’t believe that Russia had to undergo capitalism then why did they implement, and I quote Lenin, state capitalism.

          Also there’s already a term for socialists who tolerate capitalism, it’s social democrats. Maybe the “democrat” thing is the issue MLMs have with the whole concept, not the tolerating capitalism part.

          • volodya_ilich@lemm.ee
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            there’s already a term for socialists who tolerate capitalism, it’s social democrats

            Social Democrats don’t want a transition to communism, not even ideologically. Dengists and Mensheviks do, at least ideologically. Whether you believe that or not is a different debate, but equating socialdemocrats with mensheviks is dumb, not a dunk.

            why did they implement, and I quote Lenin, state capitalism

            Look, I’m not here to argue for Marxism-Leninism against you because you’re obviously trying to be smug, not trying to have a civilized discussion. If you actually want some good (in my opinion) analysis of actually-existing socialism, there are plenty of Michael Parenti videos online, or you can pick up his book “Blackshirts and Reds”. But I suspect you’re just here to punch to those communists that are further left than you are. If you do want to have this discussion let me know.

            • barsoap@lemm.ee
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              Social Democrats don’t want a transition to communism, not even ideologically.

              Last I checked the SPD’s party program still speaks of socialism.

              But I suspect you’re just here to punch to those communists that are further left than you are.

              I’m an Anarchist. Council Communists are generally to the right of me, quite adjacent but not quite there, Tankies somehow managed to seat themselves at the very other side of the plenum.

              • volodya_ilich@lemm.ee
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                Last I checked the SPD’s party program still speaks of socialism

                I’m sure the SPD party program talks about the end of capitalism /s

                Again, not here to engage with smug factionalists. Have a good day

                • barsoap@lemm.ee
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                  I’m not a factionalist you’re the factionalist. Just agree with me and be done with it!

      • JustARaccoon@lemmy.world
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        I mean you can still have private property under communism, it’s the capital making property that’s more owned by the workers themselves, but you can still own things under communism.

        Similarly, you can earn capital under communism too, it’s just that the tools for earning said capital aren’t owned by corporations under corporations under CEOs under the 1%. It’s not a cornerstone for sure, but it’s not like communism is anti capital and growth and owning things

          • JustARaccoon@lemmy.world
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            Read a bit ahead if you may:

            Communism deprives no man of the power to appropriate the products of society; all that it does is to deprive him of the power to subjugate the labour of others by means of such appropriations.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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              Okay? That doesn’t change the summary about private property, which is a thing in China. It wasn’t under Mao, it is now.

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              And then the adherents fought over the means and meaning, and everybody else threw their hands up

              • JustARaccoon@lemmy.world
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                Tbh Marx is intentionally questioning definitions and such so it makes sense, simplifying it down to terms we use isn’t very productive in that sense, because what he argues for is the abolishing of “private property” as we know it, but without removing the fruits of labour from its people, so if you and your mates worked for your house you can have it, until the moment you start making a business out of it then it’s less ok.

    • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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      I’ll have you know that America did some bad stuff so that justifies literally any amount of authoritarianism from China.

        • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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          They were being sarcastic and facetious. Tankies use a similar argument everytime somebody speaks ill of China.

          Examples:


          “TikTok is a military campaign proven to spy on messages and photos and send massive amounts of data to Chinese headquarters.”

          “OH OKAY but its fine when FaceBook and Google hand over info to the USA, is that it?”


          “Chinese hostile takeovers of Hong Kong, Tibet, and soon potential war with Taiwan and Philippines is worrying. World War 3 could be upon us.”

          “BuT nAtO anD IsrAeL eXiST!”

      • Crikeste@lemm.ee
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        America doing ‘bad stuff’ is a comical understatement. Sure, the genocide of native Americans and chattel slavery is “bad”, but it is probably worse than general authoritarian actions. You seem to have them the other way around, or at least imply that.

        Both suck. Both have superiority complexes. I have to deal with American superiority complexes, so that paints me as “pro China”.

        I’m simply pro unity.

        • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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          You seem to grasp and miss the point at the same time.

          When tankies are faced with terrible shit their government is currently doing, they bring up terrible stuff America did a hundred years ago as if that somehow justifies it. Yes, both things bad, but the second thing has zero bearing in relation to an article about China literally disappearing dissidents.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      Reminds me of the Clinton Death List, where anyone tangential to Bill and Hilary who had a bad turn was allegedly victimized to cover up an even more insidious crime.

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    I already see tankies making up some of the most delusional excuses youve ever heard.

    • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
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      The most ridiculous I have heard is that when I pointed out that people had to wait for years to get a car, and bread lines were common, I got told that the scarcity in communist states is by design.

      SuRe yOu lIvE iN tHe CoUnTrYsIdE, bUt YoU dOn’T nEeD a CaR. JuSt WaLk oR gEt A bUgGy.

      • AItoothbrush@lemmy.zip
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        Yeah over production of goods is a problem but the ussr was built different. Hungary(where im from) has the second best land for agriculture in all of europe only after ukraine and somehow we still had food rations. Same in ukraine too. They had it even worse.

          • AItoothbrush@lemmy.zip
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            Yeah ukraine probably was but i still dont understand what kind of brain rot happened in hungary. The ussr (almost) always went easy on us but they decided that a country with excellent agriculture and absolutely no ores and heavy industry should prioritise the latter.

            • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              I think I gave more than enough of the benefit of the doubt in my original comment… I am not an expert or scholar on this, but it would seem as though there is some contention as to whether or not this fits the clarification of “genocide,” but that majority of experts on the subject seem to think it is impossible to deny the intentionality.

              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor_genocide_question

              I know you have some need to defend the USSR at all costs, which means ignoring or attempting to explain away the very real, very awful things that they did in the name of Marxism. And I think that’s a shitty thing to do, and it makes leftists who aren’t accelerationist psychopaths look bad.

              From all of this, it’s impossible to make the claim that there was any genocidal intent against Ukrainians in the USSR, which in fact saved the Slavic peoples from extermination by the Nazis.

              Impossible? Really?

              So is it safe to assume that you are a scholar on the subject? Or just another rando on the internet that creates elaborate rationales to quell the cognitive dissonance that comes with believing that a nation (any nation) can do no wrong?

              Stalin was a shitstain. Again, not an expert, but based on what I’ve read this morning, “impossible” is not the word I would use.

      • volodya_ilich@lemm.ee
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        when I pointed out that people had to wait for years to get a car, and bread lines were common

        Breadlines weren’t common. Breadlines never took place in the USSR between WW2 ending and Perestroika taking place, you’re being ahistorical. Food supply wasn’t secure for all the population in any nation until the green revolution, the USSR being no exception to that.

        Regarding waiting for a car, the soviet economy simply didn’t prioritize car manufacturing. The planning didn’t intend for every citizen to have a car in the 70s or 80s, they didn’t intend to make so many cars, so naturally, the people who had the wealth to buy a car, had to wait in waiting lists to get one, it’s not so hard to understand. There are no waiting lists in capitalism because you can segregate 99% of the population from consuming a particular good simply by making it expensive. In socialism, when you don’t have extreme inequality, most people will have access to purchase power for the vast majority of goods you produce. This in turn means that either you manufacture literally from the start one product for every citizen, or there will be waiting lists, it’s really as simple as that.

        When you can’t afford a house in capitalism until you’re 35 (if you can ever afford it) you aren’t technically in a waiting list, so even if there’s only new housing for 5% of the population every year, there will be no “waiting list” because simply the prices will go up until only 5% can afford it. In socialism, the same 5% of housing can be afforded by 50% of people, so the way to allocate the goods is a waiting list instead of priority through wealth accumulation.

        Do you really fail to understand this?

          • escapesamsara@lemmings.world
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            3 months ago

            Transport and a personal vehicle are two different things, go to any country outside the US, car ownership is reserved for the upper classes globally.

            • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              So I, a resident of Europe, am an upper class for owning a 2004 1.3 litre petrol engine Toyota Yaris.

              We started this comment chain poking fun at the most laughable arguments by tankies… And you guys keep on giving.

              • escapesamsara@lemmings.world
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                3 months ago

                Yes given you statistically don’t have a reason to own the car as you have well designed cities and functional public transport, the latter almost exclusively due to the socialist movement.

                • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
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                  3 months ago

                  functional public transport, the latter almost exclusively due to the socialist movement.

                  Dublin is nowhere near a socialist city, nor having a “functional public transport”. Many people in Ireland still live in hinterlands and rural areas with sparse public transport that comes only an hour or so. Ireland is ranked as having one of the worst public transports along with Poland, the latter being a former communist country!

                  Lol, you give the worst cope I have seen from a tankie. Even tried to gaslight me that I don’t need a car! I wish so I don’t have to spend ludicrous amount of money! I can tell you’re an edgelord Yank who thinks capitalism oppresses you personally, even though you are typing this from a computer or smartphone, developed thanks to capitalism, and while sipping hot cocoa that is not being rationed. And expressing opinions safe and sound protected by the rule of law of wherever you are.

                  Tankies keep on giving the most absurd responses and cracks me up. Thanks for giving me a quick chuckle!

                  If you are so enamoured by communism, go to Cuba, China or North Korea and let’s see if you won’t return begging for your passport back!

          • volodya_ilich@lemm.ee
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            3 months ago

            And access to transport was widely available to the overwhelming majority of the population through trains, trams, buses and trolleybuses. Even if your American mind can’t comprehend this fact, owning a car isn’t the ultimate form of mobility, there are alternatives that are arguably better. City design was centered around walkability, density and public transit; metro systems were luxurious and a predicament all out of themselves, and housing being generally obtained through the worker’s union implied that workers usually lived in relative proximity to their workplaces.

            The soviet economy was a developing, centrally planned economy, not running under the premise of overproduction and surplus but running under the premise of 5-year plans of production. There was full employment, and almost complete usage of the raw materials extracted and industrial goods produced. Making twice as many cars, implied removing all of that labor and those resources from another sector of the economy. When the premise isn’t to “make money selling cars to rich people”, but to “grant adequate material conditions and welfare to every citizen”, you have to make decisions like that. More cars could have implied, for example, fewer hospital beds or fewer trams, but my point is that making more private cars would have NECESSARILY meant making less of something else of which there’s also no surplus (because the premise of the USSR was the non-existence of surplus). It’s very easy to have surpluses in a capitalist economy when you don’t care about 80% of the population not having access to the goods and services available, when you want everyone to have access it’s a different story.

            • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              Tell that to people living in the countryside, lol. Even if your wannabe-communist, Western-born, city dwelling, mindset tell you otherwise, those on the country have limited access to transportation and infrastructures that city folks take for granted.

              • volodya_ilich@lemm.ee
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                3 months ago

                Data says otherwise. Since the end of the soviet block, there’s been a massive migration outwards from the countryside in favour of urban life all over the former socialist republics. Maybe the idea of subsidizing the infrastructure of the countryside despite it not making sense within capitalism wasn’t such a bad idea after all… Please, try to respond to that: why are people flocking from the degrading countryside in post soviet countries

                • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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                  3 months ago

                  Please, try to respond to that: why are people flocking from the degrading countryside in post soviet countries

                  “I don’t understand why people live in cities.” - Peak Tankie Analysis, apparently

                • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
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                  3 months ago

                  Since the end of the soviet block, there’s been a massive migration outwards from the countryside in favour of urban life all over the former socialist republics.

                  We’re talking about during communist era, you goal-post moving dong head.

                  You are literally just did what this comment chain is criticising lol.

              • volodya_ilich@lemm.ee
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                3 months ago

                It turned a backwater pre-capitalist empire where 80% of the population were poor farmers, into the second world power in unprecedentedly quick industrialization and development, defeated the Nazis and prevented their extermination of the Slavic people including Poles and Ukrainians, it guaranteed rights to women and to national minorities like Kazakh, Uzbeki, Georgians, Armenians, it established for the first time in history concepts like socialized healthcare and pensions for every citizen which western Europe later emulated… After being dismantled, of which it’s been 33 years, Russia still hasn’t recovered the GDP per capita of the USSR, so what does that tell you about how well liberalism is working in Russia?

                • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
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                  3 months ago

                  Socialised healthcare and pension first came during Bismarck’s time-- long before communism has come to Russia.

                • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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                  3 months ago

                  So they’re still around right, because of how well it succeeded? It didn’t completely fail and send the country into famine and despair did it?

                  … oh

      • escapesamsara@lemmings.world
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        3 months ago

        Neither of those things are true, unless you’re extremely poor, in which case why are you trying to buy an extreme luxury like a private car?

  • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    3 months ago

    Wow, what a useful state-sponsored think tank.

    I’m sure everyone else who works there will make sure to be completely honest with their findings going forward, regardless of how it might make the Party look.

    • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I’d prefer to redirect them to the north. Let them invade the fertile and undeveloped lands russia has neglected, and get back Yongmingcheng. It beats fighting every other country in the pacific - aside from North Korea.

      No one will care if China invades Russia. Do eet!

  • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Guess Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey was closer to the real story than the originals by Milne…