Argentina’s conservative president, Javier Milei, is a Trump ally. His academic background is in Austrian economics, which is directly opposed to communism. Photo courtesy of the White House.
“At one point, I thought being on the left was a mental problem,” Argentina’s conservative president, Javier Milei, told reporters. A former professor trained in the school of Austrian economics, Milei pointed to the data, saying the empirical evidence is overwhelming, that it has never worked anywhere, and that its supporters refuse to accept that reality. Since clinging to false beliefs despite overwhelming evidence is the textbook definition of delusion, he concluded, “Therefore, I thought it was a mental problem.”
“They are enemies of numbers,” He said, like a true economist. “They hate numbers. I don’t know if lefties hate bathing more than numbers.”
The numbers President Milei is referring to are the large number of countries that have been communist at some point in history, including Soviet satellite states, totaling about 50. Today, only five remain: China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam. Another interesting number is zero, the number of countries that have returned to communism after escaping from it.
“They are very violent. And since they have no way or arguments to answer, they go for physical violence,” explained Milei. “Leftists always, let’s say, resort to physical violence and all kinds of violent manifestations because they are unable to refute the arguments.”
Here, Milei is hitting on two important points. First, he argues that leftists cannot refute the empirical evidence that communism does not work. Second, he points to a historical record of violence, suppression, arbitrary arrest, torture, and execution.
The total number of people killed by communist regimes, including deaths caused by resource mismanagement and regime-imposed famines, varies. However, one of the most widely cited works is The Black Book of Communism, published by Harvard University Press and authored by European scholars drawing on newly opened Soviet archives. The authors estimate that communism’s death toll ranges from 85 to 100 million. They break this down as up to 25 million in the former Soviet Union, 65 million in China, and 1.7 million in Cambodia, with additional deaths across Vietnam, North Korea, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Latin America.
Apart from the deaths, the standard of living and lack of freedom in the five remaining communist countries make them deeply unenviable. Across multiple global indices, these states consistently rank near the bottom in economic freedom, political rights, and civil liberties.
On economic freedom, the data is stark. According to the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom, North Korea holds the lowest score in the world at 2.9 out of 100, while Cuba scores 24.3, the second lowest. Both are classified as “repressed.” China, Vietnam, and Laos also fall into the “mostly unfree” or “repressed” categories.
North Korea’s nominal GDP per capita is approximately $1,319, ranking 168th out of 197 countries, near the bottom globally. Laos registers a nominal GDP per capita of about $2,070, according to IMF data. Cuba’s figures are contested and unreliable. The country is not an IMF member and does not publish transparent national accounts, but independent estimates place its nominal GDP per capita at roughly $2,440 for 2025, a figure that has deteriorated sharply since 2020 amid economic contraction, hyperinflation, and the collapse of the sugar industry.
Vietnam and China report higher figures, but these gains largely reflect decades of partial market reforms rather than communist economic planning. Even so, Vietnam’s nominal GDP per capita stands at a paltry $4,018, while China’s reaches approximately $13,314, the highest among communist countries. That figure still falls below the U.S. federal poverty guideline for a single individual, which stands at $15,960 annually in the contiguous United States.
In other words, the average Chinese citizen, living under the world’s most economically powerful communist government, earns less than what the U.S. government officially defines as poverty. China’s GDP per capita is also less than half that of any Western European nation.
Political freedom is equally limited. All five countries are rated “Not Free” by Freedom House. China scores 9 out of 100, North Korea scores 3, and Vietnam scores 20 on measures of political rights and civil liberties. These rankings place them among the most restrictive regimes in the world.
The use of state violence remains a defining feature. China continues to be the world’s leading executioner, although the true number of executions is unknown because the data is classified. Vietnam and North Korea also keep their execution totals secret, although both regimes are known to apply the death penalty extensively.
Political imprisonment and preventable deaths are difficult to quantify, as these governments do not release reliable data. North Korea maintains a network of political prison camps, known as the kwanliso system, holding an estimated 80,000 to 200,000 people under conditions described by UN investigators as crimes against humanity, including starvation, forced labor, torture, and execution.
Cuba holds hundreds of political prisoners, with numbers rising after the 2021 protests. In China, the mass detention of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, estimated at over one million people, represents the largest internment of an ethnic minority since World War II.
The overall pattern is consistent. Every remaining communist state ranks at or near the bottom globally in economic freedom, political rights, civil liberties, and transparency. None publishes reliable data on state-caused preventable deaths, which in itself reflects the nature of these systems.
Looking at the numbers, there is no logical reason why anyone would advocate for such a system. Milei concluded, “What I discovered is that being on the left is a disease of the soul. The left is built on envy, hatred, resentment, and unequal treatment before the law.”
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