24 Jan 2022 8:00 pm
When the Bolsheviks consolidated power in the 1920s, Lenin suppressed all forms of free trade. Trading some toiletries for a garden rake was something that could get you killed by the NKVD. Lenin ordered mass hangings of peasants who engaged in this type of petty capitalism and they were labeled “kulaks”
this was essentially the state crushing small business. I dislike drawing parallels between the economy of the 1920s/30s with today because the scale of production is so drastically different, but some things still apply.
So early Soviet Union, the state sought to have total control over all monetary transactions. This of course is totally dysfunctional, so Lenin had to embrace the NEP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Economic_Policy
by loosening the death grip they had on free trade among the peasants, the Soviet oligarchs sought to let the economy flourish. Without small business, an economy cannot flourish, and the destructive effect on small business is the same whether it comes from big government or larger fish (bigger corporations)
In the US today, small business is also being strangled. Not by big government, but by multinationals. Multinational corporations absolutely steamroll small business in ways that even the old soviets could not. Consider the cumulative effects of the following advantages multinationals have
1. Lobbying firms to bribe politicians
2. Bulk volume buying
3. Regulations that hurt small businesses but give advantage to dominant monopolies (see 1)
4. Advertising (control of media)
bottom line : if you love free trade and freedom in general, get your head out of the 1950s and stop bitching about socialism/communism . Understand the greatest enemy of freedom in the new era : Globalism
this was essentially the state crushing small business. I dislike drawing parallels between the economy of the 1920s/30s with today because the scale of production is so drastically different, but some things still apply.
So early Soviet Union, the state sought to have total control over all monetary transactions. This of course is totally dysfunctional, so Lenin had to embrace the NEP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Economic_Policy
by loosening the death grip they had on free trade among the peasants, the Soviet oligarchs sought to let the economy flourish. Without small business, an economy cannot flourish, and the destructive effect on small business is the same whether it comes from big government or larger fish (bigger corporations)
In the US today, small business is also being strangled. Not by big government, but by multinationals. Multinational corporations absolutely steamroll small business in ways that even the old soviets could not. Consider the cumulative effects of the following advantages multinationals have
1. Lobbying firms to bribe politicians
2. Bulk volume buying
3. Regulations that hurt small businesses but give advantage to dominant monopolies (see 1)
4. Advertising (control of media)
bottom line : if you love free trade and freedom in general, get your head out of the 1950s and stop bitching about socialism/communism . Understand the greatest enemy of freedom in the new era : Globalism