Socialism

Two weeks ago the Human Development Report 2023/24 was published. As I did last year, here's a comparison of current and past socialist and capitalist economies' HDI (not weighed), along with the standard error of the latter group and a p-value computed via Mann-Whitney U-test. Looks like socialist countries are now (in 2022) fully on par with their capitalist counterparts. All of them except Cuba saw a sharp increase in their HDI, while capitalist countries are yet to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic consequences.

fee.org

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/8237612 > in the Soviet Union, any significant goods had two price tags: one real and another virtual. The state set the first price through some obscure methods; the usual mechanism of supply and demand established the second price on the market. If you were lucky, after several hours of standing in a queue, you could purchase goods at the state price. However, due to the chronic lack of everything for everyone, the same product could be bought on the black market at a much higher price. > > The virtual price became real on the black market and reflected the actual value of the goods for the buyer. The presence of two price tags is a confirmation of the thesis of Ludwig von Mises regarding the impossibility of economic calculations under socialism. At the same time, this is proof of the immortality and immutability of the economic laws of the free market, even under a totalitarian regime. Therefore, two economic systems and two sets of prices co-exist under socialism. Edit: the article has a bias against socialism but still interesting read on black markets under socialism.

# Methods I downloaded and used HDI values from the 2022 report, which contains data up to 1990, and values for 1975-1985 from the 2009. Then successively added any missing data from reports starting from 2008 to 1990, since some values (specifically from some socialist nations) are deleted in the latter reports. **Note that data before 1990 uses a different methodology, which explains the jagged line.** Finally, I used linear regression to complete any countries that only missed a single data point. Then, I computed the average of all capitalist and socialist countries that existed at the end of each year, and plotted it. For capitalist countries, I also plotted the standard error (it's too large to represent for socialist countries). The dashed line is the p-value computed via the Mann–Whitney U test, which is the probability (out of 1) that comparing random countries from both groups would not show any difference. That is, the closer to 0, the more likely it is that there is an actual difference between the groups. # Limitations * The HDI reports are missing lots of data, especially from the first decades. This could have been subject to selective reporting. * Means and p-value are computed without weighting by population. Either doing or not doing it may introduce different biases. * A mean might not be the best way to quantify the behavior of a wildly varied set of countries. * While the HDI is computed in such a way that taking means makes sense, there may be biases in its calculation.

lemmy.world

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/853128 > BreadTube is a place to check out left videos, discuss content from creators, and share memes and ideas. > > - [BreadTube](/c/breadtube@lemmy.world) > - !BreadTube@lemmy.world > - lemmy.world/c/breadtube

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/638597 > This is an unofficial community for the 3DIVISION game, ***Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic***. Share builds, screenshots, and guides, ask questions related to the game, and build a glorious community with comrades. > > From the WIki: > ***Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic*** is the ultimate real-time Soviet-themed city builder tycoon game. Developed by 3Divison it is available on Steam in Early-Access since 15th March 2019. Construct your own republic with a centrally planned economy and transform a poor country into a rich industrial superpower! > > [Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic](/c/workersandresources@lemmy.world) > > https://lemmy.world/c/workersandresources > > !workersandresources@lemmy.world >

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Basically, the assumption is that PPP-adjusted GDP per capita (B) is a reliable measure of the economic activity in a country, while its ability to satisfy the needs of its population is better quantified by the PPP-adjusted median wealth per adult (D). Wikipedia provides B, as well as unadjusted GDP per capita (A) and unadjusted median wealth per adult ( C), so it's a reasonable assumption that D = BC/A. Since B represents production, C/A is a coefficient indicating how well this production translates to better quality of life. So, my question is, for an arbitrary D, how much do each of both factors contribute to it? We need to find x so (Bx)(Cx/A) = BCx²/A = 1, so, since 1 = D/D = BC/AD, we find that x = 1/sqrt(D). Then the normalized production factor is Bx = B/sqrt(D) = B/sqrt(BC/A) = sqrt(AB/C). Since this factor follows a logarithmic distribution, is only makes sense to take the logarithm, for p = log10(sqrt(AB/C)) = 2log10(AB/C). I just omitted the constant factor for simplicity. It's far from perfect, as it tends to put together countries with lower GDP per capita and countries with fairer distribution, since both rely less on a high production.

You know, I wasn't sure where to post this -- not serious enough for communism, too serious for memes, and this became my in-between choice. I don't want to claim this is anything but my own lessons learned as a party member for over 2 years now (possibly 3? I stopped counting). But I've seen an upsetting trend of class reductionists (even if they won't admit it) that think workers are all reactionary & cishet. That somehow the 16yo cashier with a rainbow dye is not a worker, or that the . So I figured if they can give their own "advice", then I'm allowed to as well. 1- don't assume you know more than anyone else, approach them with the POV they have something to teach you 2- join a party and contribute in any way you can. Push yourself to get out of your comfort zone. Join ML parties even if they have a line you disagree with on some things, because of the way these parties work. Join generally socialist parties only if there are no ML parties to join. 3- your communist identity is not your whole life, you're allowed to enjoy lib media and you should have hobbies and other stuff in your life. It's okay to take a step back once in a while. 4- The role of the communist party is very specific, and understanding this takes perhaps longer than understanding any other component of ML. The vanguard does not lead, it guides. Thus in your every day life you are also able to find opportunities. If workers at your place are complaining about schedules, there might be the opportunity to guide them towards real change. Discuss this with your party. 5- one small victory leads you to being more confident about future, more daring victories. 6- you're not the "communist friend" in the group. You're just the friend. You have fringe political opinions but you don't have to introduce yourself as a communist. Centrists don't introduce themselves as centrists, conservatives don't introduce themselves as conservatives. This new part of your identity shouldn't change who you are to your friends. However personally I always make sure to include some ideas when I talk to people. -- In doubt, you should ask: how does this benefit the revolution in my country? We benefit the revolution by educating the workers, making them class-conscious about their interests, and showing them that organisation does work. If you secure victories **with** them, no matter how small, they will start seeing that they actually have power to change things. I'm reminded of a campaign ran in another country by their party. The city wanted to make some parking spaces paid, which would be a financial burden on the people that worked in the city. The party organised a petition signing and then called all the signatories to show up at city hall on a saturday morning when they were debating the parking spaces. There were more than 300 people standing in front of city hall demanding that they drop the issue. The party did not go along, the party did not work from the shadows. They enticed the signatories to come along to show their strength and show them victory. To this day the parking spaces remain free.

Read the text here: https://write.as/peace-labor-may/a7hthyixn9f9xumr

The author makes some very good arguments regarding fact checking websites and media in general (even if his views on vaccinations may be questionable). He also clearly doesnt know Marxism, but if you replace the "International Cabal of Gangsters" with the bourgeoisie, it is surprisingly accurate.

study from the video https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378020307512