this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2024
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Having large numbers of people starve to death seems like a pretty damning indictment of a system. But I dunno, maybe I'm overly attached to food?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (2 children)

compare that to the mass starvations happening on a daily basis under capitalism (including the one currently in progress in Gaza)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Are you really asking for a comparison, or is this a red herring?

3.9 million Ukranians died of starvation between 1931 and 1934. There are currently 0.5 million on the brink of starvation in Gaza, and 27 confirmed starvation deaths in Gaza (as of March 11th, and that is likely from incomplete data, but its what we have to work with unless we want to use imaginary data, and im assuming we don't). If we assume a linear growth rate and extrapolate, we could expect ~100 confirmed deaths and 1.5 million on the brink in a similar time period.

So, if we use raw numbers the USSRs leadership in Ukraine led to a greater total amount of starvation, however, if we look at it from a per capita perspective, about 10% of Ukraine's total population of ~ 32 million was starving and the 1.5 million number I extrapolated above would be almost 100% of Gazans.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Ireland famine, Indian famine, Ethiopia famine, ... Do I have to say more?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Well, yes. Those are just the names of places. There were other Soviet/communists famines as well. All said, about 50 million died in various communist-nation famines. This isn't a defense of capitalism...it's just stating facts. If we actually want to reduce suffering, we need to be objective. As far as capitalism v communism goes, as far as I can tell, they're both very flawed systems prone to authoritarian takeovers. I think the best we've got right now is the sort of socialist-democratic systems we see in northern Europe where most businesses are still privately owned, but markets are severely regulated. Education and elections are well-funded from public coffers, so it's a fair playing field. Governments are comprised of multi-party coalitions that help force hard-liners to compromise, and no-cinfidence votes make it easier to reform government when it isn't working well.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The British East India Company killed 40 million People. And that is just one singular corporate entity.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

And 40 million sex-selective abortions happened under China's one-child policy, 30 million starved during the 40-yr-famine and an additional 4 million outside Ukraine in the USSR. The problem isn't communism/capitalism it's authoritarian vs democratic.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

20 million people die from starvation, lack of access to clean water or preventable disease under capitalism EVERY YEAR.

These are solvable problems but its not profitable. 1/3 of food produced globably is thrown away. We've plenty of solutions for access to water. Preventable disease, it's in the name.