When you have a small class that dominates production and the state, any legislation “checking” capitalism is done with the consent of those it is supposedly checking.
With proper checks, it doesn’t need that upper class’s consent, because power and production are separated. That’s precisely what proper checks do, and your entire argument is based on the concept that it’s impossible, when it is very well possible. Ironically enough, in the USSR, production was centrally controlled - by the state, so you had that very combination of production and power, the very same combination which you rightly claim leads to major problems.
the DDR was run by the majority of society, the proletariat
Except it just simply wasn’t. The majority of society had no real say, as I had explained earlier.
People generally left the DDR mostly because they could get free and high quality education, and then make more money in West Germany.
They left everything they had, their friends and their family, knowing they might well never see them again, and put their life in serious danger, just to make more money? And that by the millions? I mean, seriously, give it a serious thought, because that simply doesn’t add up.
Never mind that west German education was pretty good as well, these people generally left with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. They arrived in West Germany essentially in poverty. And didn’t stay in poverty. That says something.
Western Germany continued much of what was going on under the Nazis, encroached on East German territory, and played a pivotal role in destabilizing East Germany. This is what caused the rise in the Stasi.
Honestly, the more you talk about it like that, the more you make the DDR sound like an abusive partner. “I am protecting you, everyone else is dangerous and wants to do bad things to you. When I seriously hurt you? Oh, no, that’s not my fault, that’s other people interfering in our relationship, that’s just the natural consequence of that! Plus, everyone else would hurt you even more. But don’t you dare leave me, or I’ll kill you.”
You still see the state as outside of class struggle, which is why you believe you can keep the ruling class in “check.” The reason the USSR had a much better structure than capitalist economies is because the ruling class of the USSR was the same as the majority of society, the proletariat. Production and the state are intensely intertwined in both capitalism and socialism, the state is the means by which the ruling class cements its rule.
As for the DDR, the ruling class, similarly to the USSR, was the proletariat. Democracy in the DDR was controlled by the working classes, and the working classes controlled the state. They did not have a western, liberal form of democracy, but this is exactly why they were genuinely more democratic as opposed to the west.
I don’t necessarily need to respond to your metaphors substituted as a point. It’s very well-known that the USSR charged reparations from Germany, which was in their right but caused economic hardship in East Germany, and that the west was flooded with support from the US and the rest. Further, East Germany had much less to work with, and was more devastated by the war. Despite this, it had a better form of society that, if both had continued to be distinct, would have surpassed the west down the line.
because the ruling class of the USSR was the same as the majority of society
If you’re part of the ruling class you’re no longer “the same as the majority of society”. Simple as that. And the ruling class was definitely not controlled by the rest of society as I explained earlier. It didn’t stop their propagandists from trying to display it as such though.
You did not explain how the “ruling class” was not the majority of society. You explained that you have an incomplete, non-Marxist view of what class is, and thus we are talking about entirely different subjects.
Classes are relations to ownership of production, not levels of wealth, and not hierarchy. The ruling class of the USSR was the proletariat, administrators were proletarian and the state was run in the interests of the proletariat. Capitalists, fascists, landlords, kulaks, etc. were the oppressed classes and had their property expropriated.
Ruling class does not mean leadership, nor “tiny,” it refers to the class in power.
With proper checks, it doesn’t need that upper class’s consent, because power and production are separated. That’s precisely what proper checks do, and your entire argument is based on the concept that it’s impossible, when it is very well possible. Ironically enough, in the USSR, production was centrally controlled - by the state, so you had that very combination of production and power, the very same combination which you rightly claim leads to major problems.
Except it just simply wasn’t. The majority of society had no real say, as I had explained earlier.
They left everything they had, their friends and their family, knowing they might well never see them again, and put their life in serious danger, just to make more money? And that by the millions? I mean, seriously, give it a serious thought, because that simply doesn’t add up.
Never mind that west German education was pretty good as well, these people generally left with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. They arrived in West Germany essentially in poverty. And didn’t stay in poverty. That says something.
Honestly, the more you talk about it like that, the more you make the DDR sound like an abusive partner. “I am protecting you, everyone else is dangerous and wants to do bad things to you. When I seriously hurt you? Oh, no, that’s not my fault, that’s other people interfering in our relationship, that’s just the natural consequence of that! Plus, everyone else would hurt you even more. But don’t you dare leave me, or I’ll kill you.”
You still see the state as outside of class struggle, which is why you believe you can keep the ruling class in “check.” The reason the USSR had a much better structure than capitalist economies is because the ruling class of the USSR was the same as the majority of society, the proletariat. Production and the state are intensely intertwined in both capitalism and socialism, the state is the means by which the ruling class cements its rule.
As for the DDR, the ruling class, similarly to the USSR, was the proletariat. Democracy in the DDR was controlled by the working classes, and the working classes controlled the state. They did not have a western, liberal form of democracy, but this is exactly why they were genuinely more democratic as opposed to the west.
I don’t necessarily need to respond to your metaphors substituted as a point. It’s very well-known that the USSR charged reparations from Germany, which was in their right but caused economic hardship in East Germany, and that the west was flooded with support from the US and the rest. Further, East Germany had much less to work with, and was more devastated by the war. Despite this, it had a better form of society that, if both had continued to be distinct, would have surpassed the west down the line.
If you’re part of the ruling class you’re no longer “the same as the majority of society”. Simple as that. And the ruling class was definitely not controlled by the rest of society as I explained earlier. It didn’t stop their propagandists from trying to display it as such though.
You did not explain how the “ruling class” was not the majority of society. You explained that you have an incomplete, non-Marxist view of what class is, and thus we are talking about entirely different subjects.
Classes are relations to ownership of production, not levels of wealth, and not hierarchy. The ruling class of the USSR was the proletariat, administrators were proletarian and the state was run in the interests of the proletariat. Capitalists, fascists, landlords, kulaks, etc. were the oppressed classes and had their property expropriated.
Ruling class does not mean leadership, nor “tiny,” it refers to the class in power.