It’s surprising that soviet style centrally planned economy took more than 70 years to collapse. I think most libertarians would have predicted it to collapse way earlier.
Soviet economy did not 100% follow the ideology of central planning. Black market always existed (and probably helped many people survive), and when critical things started collapsing, exceptions were also made officially.
Also—not sure how important was this—Soviet Union got some fresh vassal states after WW2.
And even when the economy is dysfunctional, you can get some extra income from selling raw resources.
(But technically I agree that most libertarians would probably underestimate how much extra time this can win.)
“There is a great deal of ruin in a nation”—Adam Smith, on the doom that Britain faced on losing the American colonies.
I think most wonks of any stripe are very surprised just how long things take to change, and how stable (or even perversely changing) “bad” equilibria are.
Not really. “Collapse” is not the only failure case. Mass starvation is a clear failure state of a planned economy, but it doesn’t necessarily burn through the nation’s stock of proletariat laborers immediately. In the same way that a person with a terminal illness can take a long time to die, a nation with failing systems can take a long time to reach the point where it ceases functioning at all.
It’s surprising that soviet style centrally planned economy took more than 70 years to collapse. I think most libertarians would have predicted it to collapse way earlier.
Soviet economy did not 100% follow the ideology of central planning. Black market always existed (and probably helped many people survive), and when critical things started collapsing, exceptions were also made officially.
Also—not sure how important was this—Soviet Union got some fresh vassal states after WW2.
And even when the economy is dysfunctional, you can get some extra income from selling raw resources.
(But technically I agree that most libertarians would probably underestimate how much extra time this can win.)
“There is a great deal of ruin in a nation”—Adam Smith, on the doom that Britain faced on losing the American colonies.
I think most wonks of any stripe are very surprised just how long things take to change, and how stable (or even perversely changing) “bad” equilibria are.
Not really. “Collapse” is not the only failure case. Mass starvation is a clear failure state of a planned economy, but it doesn’t necessarily burn through the nation’s stock of proletariat laborers immediately. In the same way that a person with a terminal illness can take a long time to die, a nation with failing systems can take a long time to reach the point where it ceases functioning at all.