This is a thread about the economy of the USSR. Most of the comments are ideological, on the side of capital, and generally incorrect and ignorant of history.

It is impossible to discuss this topic without discussing and arguing ideologically-founded positions. If the guidelines are against this, the entire thread should be nuked by mods and virtually every person in the thread should be warned and/or have their comments removed.

Until then, I will provide some informed, highly relevant, and historically-grounded balance to the generally libertarian/liberal techbro (ideological) narratives spread constantly on HackerNews.

Edit: here's a list of what you should look at for consistency:

- The top comment is an ideologically-based analysis (hey, just like mine) using non-standardized terms but presenting them as common: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25088755

- The second-to-top comment is an ideological but high-level description of Chile's approach to this problem, including an ideological (but accurate) description of why it was not actually tested: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25085779

- I'm replying to a comment to the third-to-the-top comment. My reply here is merely a reference to the common idea of "the end of history" for capitalist economics following the collapse of the Soviet Union, which I would guess is relevant of the removal of planned economies from their textbook. My reference to this is barely ideological at all and I'm not sure how I'd even argue that it was.

- The fourth-to-the-top comment is a negative one towards the supply chains in the former Soviet bloc: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25090289. Their examples of them being bad include modularity and repairability, which is of course ideological.

- The fifth highest comment is a joke about the game Factorio: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25089965.

- The sixth highest comment is discussing a different (imo, bad) book called "Why Nations Fail": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25087224. They present the authors' position, which is of course ideological and highly capitalist.

- The seventh highest comment is a link to another review.

- The eight highest comment is vague guessing about computing power.

- The ninth highest comment is referring to another thread from three years ago on this exact same topic. It is jam-packed with ideological positions on why planned economies can't work. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25088681

- The tenth highest comment repeats apocryphal comments about Lenin and Henry Ford. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25090364. Soviets existed before Ford's work and evolved in various different directions due to power dynamics.

- The eleventh highest comment is a political commentary on Tetris. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25089021

- The twelfth highest comment is references to a relevant (ideological) debate, with Mises given the second (and last) word: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25089447

- The thirteenth highest comment is about the practicality of revisiting these ideas given greater computing power (again): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25085755

This is getting a bit silly, but you get the idea. Just going through the top comments in order reveals ideologically-heavy discussion because the topic itself is inherently political and regards matters where the average Western person (and tech person) has been propagandized more than informed on the history and economics. The majority of the comments boil down to, "it can't work because X" or "it can work because Y", all of which must have ideologically foundations on economics.