Against Hickelism
I do wonder if there will ever be a reevaluation and integration of the Soviet Union in Western thought, one free of the context of needing to prove ourselves better than that system.<p>For all its horrors and atrocities, the Soviet economy grew, and worked.  Oh, not very well.  But better than 0% growth.  In 1910 the average Russian was an illiterate peasant.  In 1980 the average Russian was a literate urban dweller with electricity and indoor toilets on their floor with twice the life expectancy of their great-grandparents.<p>This is, again, not intended as a defence of that monstrous system.  It can be condemned on purely moral grounds alone, in my opinion.  And it was not as efficient by most analyses, either.  Still, I bring it up because, as a counter-example, it complicates both of the commonly made assertions mentioned in the article: that poverty hasn't decreased in any meaningful sense, and that the capitalist system is the only means of greater than 0% growth in material production.