Picardía / Thumbs Up Emoji Man - *Stares in Bengal Famine*

The only historically recognized famine to have taken place in the United States occurred from 1878-1880 and was confined to St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, which is inhabited primarily by hunter-gatherer people. Per this academic article discussing the historical accounts of the natives who survived, the famine was principally caused by extremely cold winters, poor hunting conditions, a concurrent epidemic, and over-harvesting the local wildlife. Approximately 3,000 people died.

Meanwhile, the USSR can claim the privilege of having six major famines throughout its short lifespan--four if you take out the ones that occured during a war, as one should. Those four claimed the lives of millions, and that's to say nothing of the other famines that occurred and continue to occur in other "People's Republics" and "Democratic People's Republics."

Famine is the default state of mankind, scraping by against the elements. Industrialization has brought mankind out of day-to-day subsistence. Communist countries nevertheless manage to render themselves anachronisms--industrialized, but somehow still capable of experiencing periodic famine.

Since WWII, all majors famines have fallen into one of three categories: (1) war, (2) pre-industrialized or under-industrialized societies, and (3) communist or communist-leaning societies.

My country's history would beg to differ. But I guess making memes about capitalism weighs more than historic events now.