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PhilGoetz comments on Undiscriminating Skepticism - Less Wrong
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I'm increasingly inclined to use reactions to data that Communist economies did no worse on average than Capitalist economies as a new litmus test.
People who as their first reaction start pulling excuses why this must be wrong out of their asses get big negative points on this rationality test.
I don't need to explain why this is not mainstream. It is also extremely unlikely to be significantly wrong.
The only good experiment performed was the partitioning of Germany. East and West Germany were economically equivalent at the end of World War 2, with very similar populations, socioeconomically and genetically.
When they reunified, West Germany was very far ahead of East Germany. I know many people who've come from or been to both East and West Germany, and their opinions on the subject are so strong and unanimous that I will flatly deny any study that says they were equivalent economically. I will not even bother to read such a study.
To make the comparison completely fair, you might have to adjust for the fact that America loaned money to West Germany for reconstruction, while Moscow IIRC saw East Germany as a revenue source. But then again, you might not. Because having your wealth transferred to the capital is one of the distinguishing characteristics of a communist economy.
This is just plain false. Their income ratios in 1950 were about 2.1:1. Income ratios in 1990 were still about 2.1:1.