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The choice of bananas as a benchmark seems really bad given that the US invaded and supported coups throughout Latin America specifically to keep the price of bananas low.

> The idea that US and USSR were equals or even anything near it is totally absurd

That's not what I said. I said the material conditions of the population improved markedly more in the USSR than here in Latin America following WW2

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Bananas have a symbol status, given how mundane they are in countries that are open to international trade and how infamously difficult they were to get back then (among many other similarly mundane products). In mid-1950s, USSR imported 2000 tons, and by mid-1980s, peaked at around 80 000 tons. Present-day Russia has half the population, but imports 1 500 000 tons.

It's beyond imagination to westerners I've spoken to that people used to queue for hours on the rare occasions when bananas were available, and that most people lived to their 30s and 40s without ever tasting a banana (despite wanting to).

Statistics glance over this "human experience" side of things when making comparisons.

I do not know why you were downvoted.

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