# Quote — Paul R. Krugman, Pop Internationalism

> First, most of the speculation about the superiority of the communist system - including the popular view that Western economies could painlessly accelerate their own growth by borrowing some aspects of that system - was off base. Rapid growth was based entirely on one attribute: the willingness to save, to sacrifice current consumption for the sake of future production. The communist example offered no hint of a free lunch.
>
> Second, the economic analysis of communist countries' growth implied some future limits to their industrial expansion - in other words, implied that a naive projection of their past growth rates into the future was likely to greatly overstate their real prospects. Economic growth that is based on expansion of inputs, rather than on growth in output per unit of input, is inevitably subject to diminishing returns. It was simply not possible for the Soviet economies to sustain the rates of growth of labor force participation, average education levels, and above all the physical capital stock that had prevailed in previous years. Communist growth would predictably slow down, perhaps drastically.

- Author: [Paul R. Krugman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-r-krugman.md)
- Book: [Pop Internationalism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-r-krugman/pop-internationalism.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Krugman#Pop_Internationalism_(1996)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-r-krugman/pop-internationalism/first-most-of-the

## More from this book

> So let's start telling the truth: competitiveness is a meaningless word when applied to national economies. And the obsession with competitiveness is both wrong and dangerous.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-r-krugman/pop-internationalism/so-lets-start.md)

> If growth in East Asia is indeed running into diminishing returns, however, the conventional wisdom about an Asian-centered world economy needs some rethinking.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-r-krugman/pop-internationalism/if-growth-in-east.md)

> This article makes three points. First, it argues that concerns about competitiveness are, as an empirical matter, almost completely unfounded. Second, it tries to explain why defining the economic problem as one of international competition is nonetheless so attractive to so many people. Finally, it argues that the obsession with competitiveness is not only wrong but dangerous, skewing domestic policies and threatening the international economic system.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-r-krugman/pop-internationalism/this-article-makes.md)