Marginal Revolution mentions a new revision in the democide numbers for the 20th century, prompting the question: With progressive, egalitarian friends like these, who needs enemies?
Now, my overall totals for world democide 1900-1999 must also be changed. I have estimated it to be 174,000,000 murdered, of which communist regimes murdered about 148,000,000. Also, compare this to combat dead. Communists overall have murdered four times those killed in combat, while globally the democide toll was over six times that number.
The Museum of Communism also has some interesting details on this matter.
And over at Cafe Hayek, we surprisingly learn that Walmart’s low prices actually help the purchasing power of less affluent individuals:
Wal-Mart’s critics allege that the retailer is bad for poor Americans. This claim is backward: As Jason Furman of New York University puts it, Wal-Mart is “a progressive success story.” Furman advised John “Benedict Arnold” Kerry in the 2004 campaign and has never received any payment from Wal-Mart; he is no corporate apologist. But he points out that Wal-Mart’s discounting on food alone boosts the welfare of American shoppers by at least $50 billion a year. The savings are possibly five times that much if you count all of Wal-Mart’s products.
Be sure to read the last part on Medicaid and a National Healthcare System. Touché!
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Hmmmm. So maybe we were right to fear and fight Communism with force and maybe we weren’t the “aggressor” as Rothbard ludicrously claims …
Here’s looking to a pro-American pro-Constitution view taking over the Mises.org website (and lewrockwell.com for heaven’s sake).
I wonder if this list includes, say, the 2 million Vietnamese the US killed during that war. It doesn’t appear to. I suspect the true democide levels of the 20th century are much higher yet.
Paul D: Don’t confuse combatant with non-combatant deaths. Rummel defines “democide” as “murder by government” of non-combatants, excluding combatant deaths. Rummel’s estimate for total combatant and non-combatant war dead in SE Asia from 1945 to 1987 is 3.761 million on all sides, including 1.813 million non-combatants killed by “democide.”
Of the democide total, Rummel credits North Vietnam with killing 1,699,000 innocents, South Vietnam with killing 90,000 innocents, and the US with killing 6,000 innocents, including non-combatants killed by bombing.
Check out Rummel’s research before you criticize too harshly. He uses a transparent, understandable methodology and a variety of resources from a wide political spectrum.
Excerpt from Professor Rummel’s democide web site:
“I once thought that in our modern age-the age of mass literacy, telecommunications, and near universal education in most nations, only Hitler was capable of mass slaughter, and this due to his fanatic hatred of the Jews coupled with his absolute power. It was a shock to discover that he not only had killed many more non-Jews, but that Stalin and Mao surpassed his overall total. And then to also find out that besides these big killers, there were at least eleven other regimes that had murdered a million or more left me with these questions: How can so many journalists, intellectuals, and academics be ignorant of so much murder? Where are the media stories and commentary? Where are the churches on this? Where is the moral outrage?”
http://www.mega.nu/ampp/rummel/lesser.htm
CORRECTION
Paul D: In my earlier post I said that Rummel estimated “…war dead in SE Asia…” I should have said, “…war dead in Vietnam…” The figures I quoted were only for Vietnam and did notinclude, for example, the Kmer Rouge democide in Cambodia.
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