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Comment by baursak | Hacker News Reader

> A huge jump? Versus the tsar regime, probably - it was a catastrophe in itself. But compared to the Western world, GDP growth was miserable and clearly behind all "modern" countries in comparison.

I'm curious, how useful is a GDP measurement in a "communist" country where there are no monetary transactions to obtain the most important human needs -- housing, education, daycare, leisure, vacations, etc?

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You need to learn more about these countries then. Don't just buy the propaganda.

One of the ways Marxist-Leninism splits from traditional Marxism is Lenin believed (or realized that) a communist state would need to go through a transitionary market period with strong regulations and planning. The USSR never abolished money. That is way way way farther then they managed to get. There were super markets (not great but I Western standards, but they were there). They believed an ideal socialist state would take a long time to achieve.

Here's a link about shopping and money in the USSR: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/...

China is basically the same story, but the market was even stronger.

I’m aware that there were money and shopping in the USSR, thanks. I’m also aware that there was no real estate market in the USSR, daycare and education of all levels was free, vacations weren’t paid for, etc. I’m assuming none of those are in GDP calculations? That was my question.

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