Communism

I joined many experts in making the two big economic mistakes of the past 80 years. The first was the assumption that if countries chose economic freedom that political freedom would follow. The goal was to pull China away from communism. When they opened their society to the free market in 1978 under the “Reform and Opening Up” policy under Deng Xiaoping, the result was the movement of 500 million people out of poverty but they remained communist. Their GDP grew from two billion to 20 trillion but they remained communist. The second mistake was assuming that people would become disillusioned with communism. At the end of WW 2 there were 14 communist countries in the world and by the fall of the USSR in 1991 there were only five left. They were China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam. While Cuba and North Korea are barely holding on the other three are still thriving. In spite of this history, many young people in the West think that socialism is a better way to govern than free market capitalism. Here is what Google AI says: Many young Americans (aged 18–29) hold a favorable view of socialism, with studies indicating up to 62% view it positively, often associating it with equality, social justice, and government-provided services rather than strict state ownership. Socialism, according to Karl Marx is the first step to communism.