I like to think of centrally planned economies (e.g. Warsaw Pact, pre-reform India or pre-reform China) as helium balloons held under water; all they need is to be released in order to fly up.
What I find extraordinarily sad is how many people still want to return to central planning. I think it's very attractive to the sort of Bright Young Thing who's never held a real job and dealt with real people, and who ends up living his life mooching off of those who have and do.
Your analogy is more accurate than you imagine; they are helium balloons, and can easily burst. Just look at what happened to Slovenia (first communist, then 15 years of GDP growth, and looting and stealing by the former communists who were now democratically elected, and now the population is paying off the debts).
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I like to think of centrally planned economies (e.g. Warsaw Pact, pre-reform India or pre-reform China) as helium balloons held under water; all they need is to be released in order to fly up.
What I find extraordinarily sad is how many people still want to return to central planning. I think it's very attractive to the sort of Bright Young Thing who's never held a real job and dealt with real people, and who ends up living his life mooching off of those who have and do.
Your analogy is more accurate than you imagine; they are helium balloons, and can easily burst. Just look at what happened to Slovenia (first communist, then 15 years of GDP growth, and looting and stealing by the former communists who were now democratically elected, and now the population is paying off the debts).
Poland is what Russia should be and Putin's worst nightmare.