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Capitalism has created immense amounts of suffering and destruction since its beginning in the 16th and 17th centuries. Capitalist apologists often claim that this is "not real capitalism" or "crony capitalism."
Death toll
Congo
Belgian colonialists led by King Leopold killed over 10 million people in the Congo between 1885 and 1909.[1]
Ireland
During the Great Famine, the British starved over a million people in Ireland. Despite the famine, British authorities increased food exports and described the famine of "the judgement of God" against the Irish.[2]
India
Capitalism killed over 5 million in British India during the 1870s[3] and over 160 million between 1880 and 1920.[4]
Nigeria
The Nigerian government killed over a million Igbo civilians during the Biafra War.[5]
Pakistan
In 1971, Pakistan killed three million people in its war against Bangladesh.[5]
United States
The U.S. government and military have killed at least 18 million Native Americans, a million each of Vietnamese people, Iraqis,[a] Koreans, and Filipinos, 500,000 Indonesians, 500,000 Cambodians, and a combined 500,000 Germans and Japanese people.[5]
Former USSR
The average male life expectancy for the former Soviet Union dropped from 63.8 to 57.7 years between 1990 and 1994. In 2000, the Russian population dropped by 500,000 in only eight months.[6] The Ukrainian life expectancy also dropped and did not recover to Soviet levels until 2010.[7] A series of civil wars began in the former Soviet republics, killing 200,000, and additional deaths occurred due to pogroms and ethnic conflicts.[8]
Poverty
After the overthrow of the Soviet Union and restoration of capitalism, poverty rates increased massively in Eastern Europe and Central Asia:[9]
- Belarus: 1% to 22%
- Bulgaria: 2% to 15%
- Estonia: 1% to 37%
- Hungary: 1% to 4%
- Kazakhstan: 5% to 65%
- Kyrgyzstan: 12% to 88%
- Latvia: 1% to 22%
- Lithuania: 1% to 30%
- Moldova: 4% to 66%
- Poland: 6% to 20%
- Romania: 6% to 59%
- Russia: 2% to 50%
- Turkmenistan: 12% to 61%
- Ukraine: 2% to 63%
- Uzbekistan: 24% to 63%
By 1994, half of the Romanian population earned less than $160 a month and inflation was at 300%. 3.5 million people have fled the country since 1989.[10]
Economic unproductivity
Between 1991 and 1998, Russia's GDP dropped by an average of 7.9% per year. The economy of the Soviet Union grew consistently between 1975 and 1989. Eastern Europe's total real output dropped by 30% in the 1990s.[11]
Mass starvation
All of the worst 50 countries in terms of starvation rate are capitalist. Somalia, a capitalist country, has a starvation rate more than 10 times as high as Laos, the most malnourished socialist country, and over 300 times as high as socialist Vietnam.
Although the Western media often portray the DPRK as a famine-ridden country, its starvation rate is 18% lower than France. Likewise, the starvation rate in the United States is almost three times as high as in socialist Cuba and more than eight times as high as Vietnam.[12]
Mass incarceration
The United States imprisons 2.8% of its population, a higher rate than the Soviet Union at the height of the Purges.[13]
See also
References
- ↑ Luwezi Kinshasa (2020-09-09). "King Leopold II, king of genocide: Make Belgium pay reparations!" The Burning Spear. Archived from the original on 2022-03-16. Retrieved 2022-08-27.
- ↑ Larry Holzwarth (2018-03-17). "10 Atrocities Committed by the British Empire that They Would Like to Erase from History Books" History Collection. Archived from the original on 2021-06-16. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
- ↑ Larry Holzwarth (2018-03-17). "10 Atrocities Committed by the British Empire that They Would Like to Erase from History Books" History Collection. Archived from the original on 2021-06-16. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
- ↑ Ben Norton (2022-12-12). "British empire killed 165 million Indians in 40 years: How colonialism inspired fascism" Multipolarista. Retrieved 2022-12-16.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Austin Murphy (2000). The Triumph of Evil: 'Introduction' (pp. 22–24, 37–51). [PDF] European Press Academic Publishing. ISBN 8883980026
- ↑ Brian Becker (2008-02-01). "Socialism and the legacy of the Soviet Union" Liberation School. Archived from the original on 2020-11-12. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
- ↑ United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2019). World Population Prospects 2019, Online Edition. United Nations.
- ↑ Gordon M. Hahn (2017). Ukraine Over the Edge: Russia, the West and the "New Cold War". McFarland. ISBN 9781476628752
- ↑ Branko Milanovic (1998). Income, Inequality, and Poverty during the Transition from Planned to Market Economy: 'Poverty; By How Much Has Poverty Increased?' (p. 68). [PDF] Washington, D.C.: World Bank. ISBN 082133994X
- ↑ Patricia Gorky (2019-12-26). "Romania: 30 years removed from socialism" Liberation News. Archived from the original on 2022-03-19. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
- ↑ Austin Murphy (2000). The Triumph of Evil: 'The Documented Facts about Eastern Europe and Communism' (pp. 60–1). [PDF] Fucecchio: European Press Academic Publishing. ISBN 8883980026
- ↑ "Malnutrition". World Health Rankings. Archived from the original on 2022-12-02. Retrieved 2022-02-07.
- ↑ Saed Teymuri (2018-10-31). "The Truth about the Soviet Gulag - Surprisingly Revealed by the CIA" The Stalinist Katyusha. Archived from the original on 2019-04-01. Retrieved 2022-09-11.
Notes
- ↑ As of 2000, before the Second Iraq War