Marshall Plan: Starting of the Cold War (1947-1952) - Turner Production (1998)

[dave19941000]

When Communism and Capitalism face each other, the only way for Capitalism to look better is to adopt Socialism, but when Capitalism has no rivalries, it needs not change it's form, and it reveals itself as the worst system.

[ThaMahstah]

@dave19941000 The Cold War resulted in the triumph of capitalism and free markets over the planned economies of socialism and communism. The communists had to wall their own people in to prevent them from fleeing to the west. The minute the Berlin went up, it was over, philosophically speaking. The West had won.

[dave19941000]

@ThaMahstah (Part 1) The western version of Capitalism had won, but it after the Cold War every former communist country addopted Capitalism with a free market that made the Western version look like socialism. Russia is more Capitalist then the US is now, but Capitalism has failed them (50% poverty) because now Capitalism does not need to be good. It won the Cold War because it took Socialist policies into itself to make itself better then Communism.

[dave19941000]

@ThaMahstah (Part 2) But now that its rival Communism is dead, there is no reason for it to be better, it can be as ugly as it wants. When you look at the Soviet Block, youll see that things got worst after the fall of Communism, and that there is a reason why the Cold War is called by many the good old days, because Capitalism without Socialism is as bad and at times worst then Communism (it is in the former communist countries, who all have between 40-50% poverty, higher then ever)

[ThaMahstah]

@dave19941000 Not true. Many of the countries formerly in the Soviet bloc have flourished. Poland chief among them. The Baltics as well. China, in adopting capitalist practices, has exploded in potential.

[ThaMahstah]

@dave19941000 Where it is has gotten worse can hardly be put down as being because they adopted capitalist practices.

If you mean to say that unrestricted capitalism is bad, there are few who would disagree. It is an impossible system.

However, to say, "Oh, because it's not pure capitalism, it must be socialism," is flawed. Capitalist practices have brought an improvement in well-being to millions who previously lived in socialist and planned-economy systems.

[ThaMahstah]

@dave19941000 Finally, I dispute your poverty figures. Their poverty rates are not "higher than ever." Many spiked after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, as would be expected with the collapse of one of the two greatest states to ever exist, but far from being "higher than ever," they have improved steadily. Russia itself spiked at around 40% in the immediate aftermath, but is at 13% today.