Love it or hate it, from the scientific point of view communism was the biggest social experiment in history. Methodologically, it was also rather correct, because it was replicated in different societies, with different traditions and stage of development. It also had control as well as experimental groups, like East Germany and West Germany, South Korea and North. We never had such an experiment before or since. The conclusions from the experiment were also rather obvious, if you compare the standard of living in the control and experimental groups.
But it was probably a necessary experiment. Before communism what people knew was capitalism, with its cycles of booms and crises, every ten years. What a waste – said Marxists. Let’s organise the economy in a scientific, or at least rational way, without market anarchy, so that we do not have overproduction, oversupply and unemployment. We will not have those, because we will plan our raw materials and other resources, as well as jobs to avoid mismatch with our needs. In a rational economy there will also be no place for exploitation, war and poverty, because all the conflicts will be rationally regulated and resources rationally allocated.
Now, we know that this cannot be done. Certain things just cannot be planned. Planning and regulation stifle progress. But we needed experience to tell us that. Or did we?
But there is a snag. The cost of the social experiment. It has been argued that too many people died in the process. Too many hopes were thwarted and too many opportunities wasted. So let us better learn from the old experiment, because it is not going to be repeated any soon. Or is it?
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