How the USSR Radically Reduced Inequality, Even Among its Adversaries
How the USSR Radically Reduced Inequality, Even Among its Adversaries
www.socialisteconomist.com
How the USSR Radically Reduced Inequality, Even Among its Adversaries
19 comments
19 comments
If you drag everyone down to the ground that's kinda what happens.
Agreed, after the fall of socialism that’s what happened.
no you dont understand, the USSR made people in the US poor somehow and thus more equal. no, i dont know what
are, why do you ask?Opps, turns out creating a bunch of charts without fixing the value makes life in the USSR look amazing.... Only no, no it was not. Go back make all of your charts again, but this time dont use relative change or log to make things look like they were closer or better.
That's pretty wrong though. Check some numbers on USSR citizens pre-fall and compare them with some European countries and thr US at the time.
Look I appreciate value and history of socialism, but suggesting that life was good under Soviet rule ignores reality. If you talk to people who lived under it life was so bad that risking death and imprisonment to flee to the west was a worthwhile endeavor. Bread lines existed, famine happened, quality of goods was shockingly bad, violence was how order was maintained, and the idea of free speech and discourse even in ones own home came with great personal risk.
Now, dont think for a second that just because I take issue with remembering the USSR with rose glasses I think things are all rainbows and holding hands in the west throughout history. Capitalism is clearly more destructive to the world. Capitalism created global warming and climate change, it has extracted nearly all wealth and value from people to the extent that most people in the US struggle with basic needs.
Suggesting that authoritarian police states like the USSR are where life was good is a dangerous re-painting of history, as is suggesting that capitalism comes with no risks or costs to humanity. We obviously need something better, but the USSR is not the history lesson we should base our next society on.