CarwilBJ's avatarCarwilBJ's Twitter Archive—№ 30,621

          1. There's a lot of talk about "orientalism" in describing Russian oligarchs/billionaires/kleptocrats, but not nearly enough about the policies that created them.
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        1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
          The Soviet Union had nationalized industries, so private ownership of large economic sectors was nearly nonexistent.
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      1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
        Party control of society, and privileges for senior party members were real, but the wealth disparities were far smaller than the West then, or Russia and Ukraine now.
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    1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
      In theory the workers, and in practice the state, owned the means of production.
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  1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
    Western policy prescriptions urged a rapid privatization. Well connected managers, government officials, and organized crime were able to rig this process so that vast industrial companies ended up in a few hands.
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    1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
      Russian (and Ukrainian) billionaires were a policy failure. And those policies were often initiated in and promoted by the West.
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      1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
        Once this kleptocratic class was created, it closely collaborated with governments, handing off responsibility for the snowballing phenomenon solidly to governments like Putin's.
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