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Lumifer comments on Open thread, Mar. 14 - Mar. 20, 2016 - Less Wrong Discussion
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Given the rather clean comparison of East and West Germanies (no one asked any Germans what kind of political system would they like), I don't understand why you are having problems figuring this out.
The DDR was AIUI imposed on much more drastically than the BRD. It was an ally of other countries that were more prosperous and powerful to begin with (most importantly the US, as Viliam's comment about the Marshall Plan points out) whereas the DDR was their enemy.
For the avoidance of doubt, I do agree that there is very good evidence that Soviet-style communism is a less effective economic system than Western-style democratic lightly-regulated market capitalism. (And yes, the two halves of Germany make a nice comparison.) But from there to "all possible forms of socialism are bad for you" is not, so far as I can see, a step warranted by the evidence.
(The actual issue in this thread seems to have been whether the "First World" has the resources to provide everyone with 'a "decent" life' without running out. Lycce didn't propose any very specific way of trying to do this, but I don't have the impression he was wanting Soviet-style communism.)
Another huge difference was the Marshall Plan.