To put it more succinctly for Stigma, so he doesn't get confused:
There were potentially thousands of meaningful differences between West and East Germany that could have impacted their economic performance. Stigma decides to cherry pick the capitalist/socialist divide, and just assumes that this contributed to west germany's better performance, with no justification whatsoever.
It's a simplistic, intellectually lazy move, but appealing to your typical Trumpite.
@ Ellimist,
Let’s start from the top to correct your post:
Originally posted by The Ellimist
One of the key criteria behind a successful scientific experiment is the control for confounding variables. Of course, there are immeasurable confounding variables with respect to comparing these two economies that neither you nor the article you probably couldn't understand adjust for.
You conflate your very limited understanding of the term “experiment” with different kinds of experiments that accept various rules, given that they involve different areas. In short, not all experiments are taking place in a sterile environment with variables that can be wholly, or sometimes even partially, controlled.
Newsflash: cultural experiments by the very definition will take place in a living, breathing world where variables (people, their actions, some external factors etc.) cannot be controlled entirely.
Moreover, your position reeks of relativism, that is, let’s make excuses so that nothing is really comparable to anything else. No ideology is superior, cos variables lulz. No religion is superior, cos differences lulz. etc. etc.
Well, that is not how the real world works, nor does cultural evolution, nor social change, nor psychology and its insights into human nature.
But all of this notwithstanding, even by the standards you evoked in the beginning, post-WWII Germany is as good as it gets when it comes to being a fair playing field for both capitalism and socialism.
- Germany was a monolithic nation-state during WWII
- Ethnically homogenous
- Linguistically uniform
- Culturally united, with the same traditions all over the place
- Shared heritage and history
- Burned down to the ground during the WWII
In short, a very good place where a cultural experiment could be conducted. That Germany was split in half and one part of the country was rendered capitalistic, while the other was rendered socialistic.
BTW There was a reason why people jumped over the Berlin Wall to the capitalist West Berlin in search of freedom and opportunity. Not the other way around.
The rest is history. Capitalism clearly won. 👆
Originally posted by The Ellimist
Another key criteria? Consistent replicability. It's interesting that you forgo trying to do a more holistic comparison of the two and instead cherry pick one of the most chaotic,
Socialism fails over and over again, whenever it is given enough time to unravel. That’s quite replicable tbh.
Also, what you call “cherry-picking” is actually conforming in the best way to the principle you evoked earlier, that is, fair environment for the cultural experiment to happen.
Originally posted by The Ellimist
with respect to the number of meddling variables involved, dichotomies to try to bolster your pathetic argument.
And frankly, the only thing pathetic here is you struggling to build that sentence only to come up with nothing of substance… Much like most of your posts. 👆
Originally posted by The Ellimist
I could just as easily pick France and compare it to Mexico - I mean, France is a lot more socialist than Mexico, and it happens to be much more prosperous, so that must mean there's causation there, right? 🙄
Also, on a side note: The fact that France does OK now, does not mean that socialism, after it works for some more time, will not do what it does best and turn that country into a pile of sh1t. This phenomenon has been observed many times before.
Originally posted by The Ellimist
Just stop it. You're embarrassing by example the cerebral abilities that allow articles like these to exist in the first place.
^ tl, dr version:
Post-WWII Germany is like a piece of land that two brothers got to share. It was burned down by the fire of the dragon that killed all the Nazis, and now the brothers have this pile of dust to revive. Both argue that their approach will change it into a lush, green field. So each of them gets to his share of the land.
It so happens, that one of the brothers is ingenious, the other is an idiot. The ingenious brother uses capitalism and indeed succeeds 👆 The idiot brother uses socialism, waits 10 years to get a car he needed to apply for in the first place, fades in long lines for basic goods on a daily basis, and finally decides to jump over the wall to get into the capitalist brother ‘s domain.
The end.
Socialism owned again.:
Great insights from a legend of economics:
Milton Friedman Tells Phil Donahue Why Socialism Fails
👆