Not merely fantasies. Some of them materialised in the form of USSR and modern China. The former was first in the world to put a man into space 15 years after the country was devastated by a world war. The latter grew from obscurity into world leading economy (or thereabouts) in 30 years. In both these stories there’s one important, unifying aspect, which enabled rapid growth. The means of production were centralised, finances were centralised. Everything was under control of a rather small group. Hence, Value didn’t flee country, constantly looking for better profitability. It didn’t lie uselessly in offshore accounts of oligarchs. Wasn’t invested in yachts. It stayed in circulation. Was forced to, by the mandate. And worked for everyone’s benefit, enabling some of the fastest examples of economic growth at scale in history. Fast industrialisation, roads, trains, space, you name it. When all the ‘cash’ is on the table, suddenly things start moving quickly.
I think most of us, those who want to stay relevant economically, will be eventually forced to extract that public ownership aspect from mentioned societies and use it in our societies for our own benefit. Forced by market competition coming our way from Asia. Can we learn from mistakes of the past? First major socialist experiments had entire world opposing them on ideological-economic grounds. (iron curtain, US-China standoff) And yet these systems shown incredible resilience and made their way to the top, despite barrages on every front and from every angle. Of course, one can’t win by fighting the entire world, so some of those systems collapsed. And likely will keep collapsing in coming centuries. But not because they’re economically inefficient. People asking for actual evidence of socialist success, I invite you to have a look at economical record and achievements of socialist systems while under extreme stress of constant sanctions.
