EU worse than communism 2

EU worse than communism

We claimed that probably EU is worse the communism on a country's development. Let's examine this a little more to further strengthen our claim. Soviet Union, during the first three five-year plans (1928 - 1940) had substantial growth rates. What makes them impressive is that at the same time there was Great Depression (1929-1939) in a large part of the world. Although USSR started as mainly agrarian economy, it had rapid industrialization and by the 1950's it was a major industrial power.

From the end of World War II til the end of 1980's it was the second largest economy in the World both in nominal and purchasing power parity values. Population is an important factor that effects the size of an economy. In 1989, before the disintegration, the census found the total population to be 287 million. USA's population today is 335 million.

If there was Soviet Union today, the population would be roughly 294 million. There is no Soviet Union but there is a successor entity, Commonwealth of Independent States. Only Baltic countries did not participate from start but their population is small, a little more than 6 million. Also Georgia withdrew in 2008 but its population is less than 4 million. So roughly 10 million people do not participate in CIS, compared to Soviet Union.

From the beginning of Stalin era (1927) to Brezhnev era, Soviet economy grew faster than USA. but slower than Japan. From 1950 to 1965, USSR's economy grew 198%, USA's 179% and Japan's 365%. Brezhnev era (1964-1982) started with high economic growth and prosperity but later problems accumulated and overall it is considered a period of stagnation.

Consumer sector was 60% of GDP, industrial 22% and agricultural 20%. That was right before disintegration, when Japan became the second largest economy. Today Japan is in fourth place and Russia in fifth (ppp World Bank). China is in second and India in third place. USA remains in the first place. In Appendix 8 we present development of GDP per capita for USSR, USA and Western Europe.

The data are from OECD in 1990 dollars. In Table A, values in certain years are shown. Communism started in 1917 and Soviet Union in 1922. So the data before 1922 are for Russia. In Table B we calculate the increase in certain periods, during certain periods. Overall, from 1820 to 1990, USA's economy grew 1.747%, USSR was second with 1.341% and W. Europe third with 1.198%. From 1913 to 1990, in USSR economy grew 567%, in USA 338% and in Western Europe 360%.

Table C presents the ratios of GDP per capita. In purchasing power parity, they could be different. In 1820, USA and Western Europe had roughly equal income. The ratio W. Europe/USA was 98%. USSR had half that income, 55% of USA's and 56% of Western Europe's. Til 1990 USSR had an improvement compared to Western Europe because the ratio went up to 62%. There was worsening compared to USA since it went down to 43%. If we compare from 1913 to 1990 there was an improvement to USA and W. Europe.

In Hellas, statistical numbers are very unreliable, the older more. Pro-EU regime has been fiddling systematically with statistical data. They present price level increases as income growth. It is possible to reveal correct data but this would require a lot or work. So the way to find out what has actually happened in terms of growth since 1981 is empirical. Most people feel that they are in worse situation compared to 1981.

At that time, they could go out more to restaurants, cafeterias, bars, clubs, theaters, movies. They had much longer vacation, and went more often to excursions. Generally, they had a lot more leisure and entertainment. Nowadays, the money they make is only enough to cover basic expenses. They barely manage to cover these and many are not even able to do that.

Mariana Pyrgioti is a well known journalist. She is also a member of the ruling center-right treasonous party New Democracy, in which Prime Minister Mitsotakis is President. Founder of New Democracy was Konstantinos Karamanlis, a Nazi collaborator. He was the one who started the catastrophic EU membership in 1981. Actually he was also the one to sign the association agreement with EEC in 1961.

Pyrgioti unintentionally admitted on TV the complete failure of participation in EU. She claimed something that nobody can deny. She stated that previous generation was able to obtain a vacation home which their children own or use. This is entirely correct. Many people were able to do that before EU, not only rich. Not all vacation homes were not big but nevertheless many people were able to have one, big, average or small.

Of course she was trying to make a different point. She was trying to explain why current economic crisis is not so hard for many people in Greece. This is because previous generation were able to somehow obtain a vacation home which many people own or use. Unintentionally she admitted that what was possible for most people before Hellas became a member in EU, is entirely impossible today.

People at that time managed to obtain a vacation home not because they were smarter or more prudent. They did it because they could. Today they can't. Price level has gone up many times. Wages and salaries have gone up many times but prices of goods and services have increased more. So buying power has decreased for the average citizen. This is the conclusion most people make empirically.

They observe the things they can do today and compare them to those they could do in the late 70's and early 80's. If people's gut feeling is correct, real income, taking out the price level effect, has decreased. This means that growth since 1981 has been negative. That is what people's gut feeling suggests and that is what data should show if some economists spent a lot of time and effort to unravel the real statistical data, not the ones pro-EU regime presents.

Hellas probably would be in better standing today, if it was in the Communist bloc. It would be in an even better position, if it was not in communist bloc and not in EU. Probably the order from best to worst is; a) not communist - not in EU b) communist c) not communist - in EU. So there may have been a benefit for not being in the Eastern bloc but that was far outweighed by participation in EU.

to be continued...