Also, returning to your earlier point, about socialist economies not producing a lot of luxuries

1. as mentioned before, they were sanctioned and embargoed and had to focus on meeting basic needs
2. the countries were rapidly industrializing and had immature economies — e.g., China before the revolution was a preindustrial feudal state

The USSR did produce some luxury goods later on, but in lesser quantities than the west, because the USSR lacked the west's vast trade networks and third world colonies. In 1985, exports and imports each accounted for only 4% of the USSR's gross domestic product. They produced a lot of their own goods using their own population's labor, which probably made it harder to develop specialized industries to the same extent you'd see in wealthy capitalist nations that perform a lot of trade.

Also, socialist states have done a lot of central planning — again, because they were rapidly industrializing — but socialism does not forbid markets. "Socialism" just means "workers control production, rather than owners." Communist Yugoslavia has been described as a market socialist state. Even in capitalist economies, there are worker co-ops that participate in the market. Markets might be better at producing luxury goods and niche shit than centrally planned economies.

...why doesn't lemmy put a space under my last bullet?