History appears to have shown us that socialist economies fail badly, rather than producing and allocating goods and services well. Rather than just providing a history lesson, why no take a view of using economic ideas to fix the system to make it work (if that is indeed possible) and perhaps show how aspects can be grafted onto other systems, like the democratic Socialism that some countries seem to make work very well. After all, Finland is supposedly the happiest nation on Earth. Surely it isn't just due to national temperament and cold weather!
I object to the characterization of the Soviet system as "actual existing socialism." Apart from Communist party apparatchiks, no one viewed that system as socialist or desirable. The Social Market economies erected by European Social Democratic parties have more in common with the socialist vision than anything from the Soviet Union or Maoist China. The command economies are certainly worth of study in their own right. Particularly, given Xi, who appears to be a born again Maoist.
Should I add...?
G. Warren Nutter: The Strange World of Ivan Ivanov <https://books.google.com/books?id=7SvJDwAAQBAJ>
G. Warren Nutter: Some Observations on Soviet Industrial Growth <https://github.com/braddelong/public-files/blob/master/readings/article-nutter-soviet-growth.pdf>
Milovan Djilas: The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System <<https://books.google.com/books?id=8CIWAQAAMAAJ>>
Sheila Fitzpatrick: Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s <https://books.google.com/books?id=QS6IlPQf6owC>
Anna Akhmatova: Requiem & Poem without a Hero <https://books.google.com/books?id=I6xTDwAAQBAJ&>
Alan Furst: Dark Star <https://books.google.com/books?id=msDFn0ShKlwC>
History appears to have shown us that socialist economies fail badly, rather than producing and allocating goods and services well. Rather than just providing a history lesson, why no take a view of using economic ideas to fix the system to make it work (if that is indeed possible) and perhaps show how aspects can be grafted onto other systems, like the democratic Socialism that some countries seem to make work very well. After all, Finland is supposedly the happiest nation on Earth. Surely it isn't just due to national temperament and cold weather!
I object to the characterization of the Soviet system as "actual existing socialism." Apart from Communist party apparatchiks, no one viewed that system as socialist or desirable. The Social Market economies erected by European Social Democratic parties have more in common with the socialist vision than anything from the Soviet Union or Maoist China. The command economies are certainly worth of study in their own right. Particularly, given Xi, who appears to be a born again Maoist.
I'd also add Milovan Djilas' "The New Class" to the list.