A friend of my family was on an "official" agriculture visit to the USSR in the early or mid-70s. He grew up on a prosperous farm and really knew actual farming.
He reported seeing 1890s style harvesting while shiny new combines sat in a row, unused. He managed to sidle up to them. They were all missing the drive shaft. They had been shipped to the collective farm without them.
He went back later. Said he was taking one suitcase with clothes and one full of Marlboros and toilet paper.
You should check out Robert Heinlein's essay, Pravda Means Truth. He also visited the USSR in the 1950s and came back to personally fund anti-disarmament ads. His wife learned Russian before their trip so they could talk to people without interpreters! In looking for a link to it, I came across a link to the Heinlein Archives where there is correspondence with the editor about the essay. https://www.heinleinarchive.org/product-page/opus-137-pravda-means-truth The essay appeared in American Mercury in Oct 1960 and in a longer version in the much later collection Expanded Universe (where I read it).
Are there any equivalent articles about China today? I've been hearing a mix of positive and negative stuff about them, but nothing as extreme as lacking mops
I'm prepared to believe the Chinese economic system may have some deep flaws that are unreformable under their present political system. But unlike the USSR they do export a crapload of usable manufactured goods, which at minimum demonstrates their economic miracle isn't pure smoke and mirrors.
As you are not already a subscriber, may I invite you to subscribe (for free) to my substack, "Radical Centrist?" https://thomaslhutcheson.substack.com/
I write mainly about US monetary policy, US fiscal policy, trade/industrial policy, and climate change policy.
I have my opinions about which US political party is least bad and they are not hard to figure out, but I try to keep my analysis of the issues non-partisan.
Keynes said, “Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back.”
A friend of my family was on an "official" agriculture visit to the USSR in the early or mid-70s. He grew up on a prosperous farm and really knew actual farming.
He reported seeing 1890s style harvesting while shiny new combines sat in a row, unused. He managed to sidle up to them. They were all missing the drive shaft. They had been shipped to the collective farm without them.
He went back later. Said he was taking one suitcase with clothes and one full of Marlboros and toilet paper.
You should check out Robert Heinlein's essay, Pravda Means Truth. He also visited the USSR in the 1950s and came back to personally fund anti-disarmament ads. His wife learned Russian before their trip so they could talk to people without interpreters! In looking for a link to it, I came across a link to the Heinlein Archives where there is correspondence with the editor about the essay. https://www.heinleinarchive.org/product-page/opus-137-pravda-means-truth The essay appeared in American Mercury in Oct 1960 and in a longer version in the much later collection Expanded Universe (where I read it).
Are there any equivalent articles about China today? I've been hearing a mix of positive and negative stuff about them, but nothing as extreme as lacking mops
I'm prepared to believe the Chinese economic system may have some deep flaws that are unreformable under their present political system. But unlike the USSR they do export a crapload of usable manufactured goods, which at minimum demonstrates their economic miracle isn't pure smoke and mirrors.
As you are not already a subscriber, may I invite you to subscribe (for free) to my substack, "Radical Centrist?" https://thomaslhutcheson.substack.com/
I write mainly about US monetary policy, US fiscal policy, trade/industrial policy, and climate change policy.
I have my opinions about which US political party is least bad and they are not hard to figure out, but I try to keep my analysis of the issues non-partisan.
Keynes said, “Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back.”
I want to be that scribbler.
Thanks,
Caplan seems to have had some odd experiences while quite young and it has made a big difference in his opinions.
I read Nutter in college (~1962) and had not heard that he was "discredited."
"The Politburo’s willingness to pour massive resources into economically insignificant prestige projects to dazzle the gullible."
Oh man, where have I heard that one from, oh right, it's everything the current US government is doing.
Maybe our shiny toys - drones, Tesla gigafactories - do the same, keeping eyes off the rustier bits.
Who, or what, is "Gwern"? Where is Nutter's article online?
https://gwern.net/doc/economics/1957-nutter.pdf