Memes

Replace socialism with capitalism and this meme becomes accurate.

The US has a higher per capita rate of both food insecurity and extreme poverty than China, Cuba, Vietnam, and the former USSR.

• 1 out of every 7 US citizens needs to visit food banks to survive, despite having enough food to feed 10 billion people. Half of all food produced is thrown away by retailers.

• In the US alone, 20-40k deaths every year because of lack of health insurance / care. On average, that’s 300k over the last decade.

• 80% of US workers live paycheck to paycheck, 40% cannot cover a $400 emergency.

• 70% of US citizens say they are struggling financially. In the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic, Unemployment claims went to 6.6M in one week, compared to ~700k at the peak of the great depression. Food banks are running out of food in places like New York and Pittsburgh, and hospitals are short on ventilators needed to keep people alive. Lines outside an NY soup kitchen, May 2020. Americans turn to shoplifting food as 1 in 8 are food insecure as of late 2020.

• US Life expectancy peaked in 2014, is on the decline, and is now lower than in China., 2

Meanwhile...

• USSR had a more nutritious diet than the US, according to the CIA. Calories consumed surpassed the US. source. Ended famines.

• Had the 2nd fastest growing economy of the 20th century after Japan. The USSR started out at the same level of economic development and population as Brazil in 1920, which makes comparisons to the US, an already industrialized country by the 1920s, even more spectacular

• Free Universal Health care, and most doctors per capita in the world. 42 doctors per 10k population, vs 24 in Denmark and Sweden, 19 in US.

• Had near zero unemployment, continuous economic growth for 70 straight years. The “continuous” part should make sense – the USSR was a planned, non-market economy, so market crashes á la capitalism were pretty much impossible.

• USSR moved from 58.5-hour workweeks to 41.6 hour workweeks (-0.36 h/yr) between 1913 and 1960

• USSR averaged 22 days of paid leave in 1986 while USA averaged 7.6 in 1996., 2

• In 1987, people in the USSR could retire with pension at 55 (female) and 60 (male) while receiving 50% of their wages at a at minimum. Meanwhile, in USA the average retirement age was 62-67.

• All education, including university level, free. 2

• 99% literacy.

• Doubled life expectancy. Eliminated poverty.

Many more links here: https://dessalines.github.io/essays/capitalism_doesnt_work.html