Capitalism, Communism, & Political Economies: Crash Course Geography #38

Just like many great duos throughout history, Bulgaria and Germany have a fascinating (though uneven) relationship. In today’s episode, we’re going to take a closer look at the impact of politics on economies as we trace this history of Bulgaria and Germany following World War II, and examine the ways capitalism, and communism, impacted their economic strength today.

SOURCES

General
Getis, Bjelland, and Getis. Introduction to Geography, 15 ed. McGraw-Hill Education. 2017. ISBN: 978-1-259-57000-1

Gregory, Derek, Ron Johnston, Geraldine Pratt, Michael Watts, and Sarah Whatmore, eds. 2009. The Dictionary of Human Geography. 5th ed. Willey-Blackwell. ISBN: 978-1-4051-3288-6

Cracking the AP Human Geography Exam: 2020 edition. The Princeton Review.

Sofia and Bulgaria General History

Germany

Bulgaria Economy

German Bulgaria relations

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[snowcold]

Norway is a social democracy, not a democratic socialist country...
If the means of production are not owned by their workers, then it isn't socialism.

[slartibartfast]

This ought to be fun. I'm certain that they can unpack these terms in a short video and make everybody in the comments section happy.

[falkhornfalk]

Norway is a social democracy, not a democratic socialist country. There is nothing socialist about a capitalist economy.

[ArtsyChick]

I’m sure the comments section is going to be filled with mature and constructive conservations.

[SuperCrazyEstonian]

Also, Norway is not socialist, nor a democratic socialism.

[larkohiya]

Yes, plantation owners didn't make the bananas. They also didn't refine and ship them. They payed people wages to do all those things. Wages they could pay them because they had state violence (power as you like to keep calling it) to maintain their control over the lands and markets that deny the local people the ability to do so themselves due to the inequality in economic power because of the forced engagement (or they starve) in exchange of fiat currency that benefits the dominant political powers.

[DeathToMockingBirds]

Please don't conflate markets and Capitalism... Markets existed in almost all societies, from the Empires of antiquity to the Kingdoms of the middle ages to Slave markets, it's not linked to Capitalism. Capitalism is the privatisation of means of production. It means someone owning the machines worked by others, and trying to maximize the profits (the part of YOUR labor that the Capitalist puts in his own pockets after paying what's necessary to keep the business going).

But thank you to recognize that Stalinian control of the economy is a far ideal from what Marx suggested (he had surprisingly little prescriptions from his economical analysis of Capitalism, and it was mostly others, like Lenin, who fleshed out what the logical next steps were based on the situation at the time, but the structures necessary to centralize the revolution defence against the White Army, and other Capitalists also made it prone to be co-opted by the bureaucratic elite supported by Stalin, and later by Mao, and copy-pasted in most "communist" states afterward).

Yet, planned economies were almost doomed to develop this bureacucracy, supporting the government above the people, because of an anti-democratic structure (as opposed to the "all powers to the Soviets" slogan of Lenin), and the fact that technologically, it was harder to coordinate production. Now, Amazon, Walmart and others showed us very well that a planned economy could work. In "The People's Republic of Walmart", the argument is layed out that these companies already manage more employees and money than entire countries, leveraging A.I. and automation to even guess what the demand will be. The only difference is that it's a whole machine geared toward the maximisation of profit for shareholders and the people on top. The tech exist, but it could be managed by all of us, directly.

Also, going over East and West Germany and Bulgaria, you omitted the economic consequences faced by the people in those countries AFTER becoming Capitalists. Their life-standard went down dramatically, their national industries and services became privatized (going to the corrupt elite already in place), leading to incredible levels of inequality, and a reduction in life-standard. Same in most Socialist countries that either had a CIA backed coup against them to bring in Neo-Liberal dictatorships (read "The Jakarta method", and "The Shock Doctrine").

[Wolfsgeist]

One could argue how 'smooth' East Germany's transition to a market economy was...

[isthiscosure]

When everyone goes "I CANT WAIT FOR THE COMMENTS!" when in reality most are simply enjoying the references.

[andersonandrighi]

I was expecting people to argue about this video. Unnecessary fighting in the comments. People are too civil. Must be the end of the year.

[thehopeofeden]

To quote a great anime:

“Late stage capitalism is such a drag.”

[mrj]

That was a long way of saying "that wasn't real communism"

[CB-xkce]

Love the history and geography series, gold content

[insu_na]

I'd like to add one correction to this video:
East Germany wasn't *helped* by the capitalist West Germany when they united, instead East Germany was completely gutted economically. All the factories and companies they had that were working at least somewhat well were bought out by West-German capitalists and sold for scrap mostly. That is one of the reason why East Germans still largely resent West Germans, why they still consistently have a much lower average salary and part of why they vote for far-right parties.

[totollies]

"Be excellent to each other." So... no flame wars? Aw...

[DavidJamesHenry]

This is a pretty good intro, considering most people who will watch this will be kids in school. If you are a kid in school, I hope you know that if you want to know more, there is an abundance of resources available to you.

[lhfirex]

I'm glad this video could sign off with a quote from history's greatest duo.

[TheGFeather]

Dear Crash Course,
I humbly state that I, and I'm sure many others, now deeply desire a sticker of Thought Bubble Bill & Ted suitable for laptops, violin cases and general locations where we can all be encouraged to Be Excellent To Each Other. I'm hoping that if it was okay to use them in the video, it's okay to make merch. Please tell me this can happen. Perhaps as a P4A perk? My violin case really needs one.
Sincerely,
The Dude in the Comments

[majdjinn]

Whoa whoa whoa, she just slipped in socialism without actually referring to any of the socialist countries as such.

[anotheroutlier]

All I seem to see are comments just preparing for the worst, not debating, not even showing outrage, just predicting a storm that's not coming.