Now is the 50th anniversary of China’s cultural revolution. I was reading that, at the time, people were starving and had nothing. The period since then has been the greatest creation of wealth in the history of capitalism.[/quote]
Maybe because the assets of 60-80 million people (wealthy in particular) thought to have died as a result of the revolution were redistributed to the remaining population.[/quote]
I streamed the program on my drive to Vegas. 60 to 80 million deaths is rather higher even is you include the Revoltion of 1949, and the following famines.
There was wealth destruction followed by amazing wealth creation in a few short decades.
DIKOTTER: Overall? The entire cultural revolution? Probably if you take 1966 to 1976 – in other words a good decade – until the very moment that Chairman Mao dies, you can probably count about 1.5 to 2 million people who were hounded to their deaths.
But the point must be that in comparison to “Mao’s Great Famine” which took place earlier from ’58 to ’62, that appears to be a rather low figure. But the point is that it is not so much death which characterized the Cultural Revolution, it was trauma.
It was the way in which people were pitted against each other, were obliged to denounce family members, colleagues, friends. It was about loss, loss of trust, loss of friendship, loss of faith in other human beings, loss of predictability in social relationships. And that really is the mark that the Cultural Revolution left behind.[/quote]
Ok – tomato tomahto. According to Dikotter it was 45 million between 58 and 62.
I realize that was before – maybe I should just say Chairman Mao. After the black plague in Europe the remaining people did very well temporarily. I saw statistics saying that 82% of the land that was “vacated” was claimed by others (usually younger people who survived the plague better) within a year. Fewer people, more land and more resources per person. Not a great way to achieve that result.
