I was browsing the rising pages of r/popular when I came across this image on a subreddit called /r/LateStageCapitalism. In order to prevent brigading, I am not going to link the original post. For those who can't use imgur, here is the image's text:

> be Soviet Union
> be 2nd fastest growing economy of the 20th century
> have zero unemployment
> have continuous economic growth for 75 years (except WW2)
> have zero homlessness
> end famine
> have higher calorie consumption than USA
> end racial inequality
>end sex inequality
> make all education free
> 99% literacy
> have more doctors per capita in the world
> eliminate poverty
> double life expectancy
> be 25 years from reaching parity with Western world
>>> switch to capitalism
> GDP instantly halves > 40% of population drops into poverty
> 7.7 million excess deaths in the first year
> now one in ten children live on the streets
> industrial production completely collapses
> infant mortality and tuberculosis reach third world levels
> life expectancy decreases by 10 years
> original communist party becomes so popular that 1996 election has to be rigged to prevent them from winning
"but socialism doesn't work!"

While I don't normally fact-check memes, this one seems as if it's a complete revision of history -- at least, as I learned it. Years ago, I was taught in high school that Stalin was an aggressive and paranoid dictator; that civil and political rights were severely limited; that free discussion and criticism of the Soviet regime were not tolerated; and that there were massive human rights abuses and human casualties directly caused by his regime. I was also taught that the re-distribution of farmland lead to famine and food shortages, similar to the great leap forward under Mao. In addition, I was taught that the Soviet regime was replete with corruption, with an active black market and that officials in government often able to abuse their positions of power to obtain coveted resources. (I also just don't find it believable that sexism, poverty and racial inequality disappeared.)

That said, I acknowledge that some of my high school American history courses were slanted and sometimes misrepresented the facts, or established a pro-America narrative. It's possible that what I learned came more from the McCarthy-era propaganda, and this meme is more in line with the facts than my American-centered public school education.

So I came here to learn: to what extent is the text in this image at all correct? Did my teachers exaggerate, or is this meme revising history? Are any of the "facts" above true? And, ultimately, how much evidence support's the author's thesis that switching to capitalism caused the Soviet Union's downfall?