Flawed Comparisons of Socialism and Capitalism

Countries such as the US, USSR, East and West Germany, North and South Korea are often used to argue about socialism and capitalism, but does that make sense?

Old socialist modernism in Paris suburbs.

A classic argument for the virtues of capitalism is to compare countries such as East and West German as well as North and South Korea.

The argument goes something like this:

“Look at these two identical parts, where the only difference is the political and economic system. Communism led to economic backwardness in both cases.”

To be clear, I don’t favor communism at all, but pushing back against these arguments is important because they are frequently used as a straw-man to attack any system where socialist governments have played a significant role, such as Nordic social democracies.

These countries are not remotely alike. After WWII, both East and West Germany were in ruins. Rebuilding was extremely hard for several reasons: Factories and steel mills had to be rebuilt. Doing that required materials shipped by train. However, trains tracks and bridges were ruined. Repairing them required steel, but…