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One of the core ideas of Mao in the mid-20th century was to divide China into completely self-sufficient entities of about 3 mln. people, who should produce EVERYTHING without any trade whatsoever - because trade breeds wealth, which breeds inequality. They were supposed to mine their own iron and smelt their own steel from their own territory, for example.

Unsurprisingly, didn't work too well.



>Unsurprisingly, didn't work too well.

I find I cannot pidginhole this statement in an easy anti-communism idiom. While it may be addressing the failures of communism (read centralized planning), it actually holds rather well on a long view historical suggestion. Mao was talking about peasant-farmer communities, and ones of around three million people, with strategically divided borders, could easily continue their existence at a turn of the century (for North America) standard of living.

Just saying, there's nothing structurally wrong with the idea.




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