I miss the Soviet Union.

[Wilikon]

I miss the Soviet Union. I never visited the country during its 72 years of existence, and I didn’t much like what I read about it in late-Cold War newspapers and library copies of Soviet Life: the long queues for bread, the military parades presided over by impassive bemedaled field marshals, the kitschy tributes to dictators, the Olympians inflated by performance-enhancing drugs. Communism, with its denial of both God and the individual, never appealed to me as a way of life, and I doubt it was much good for the Russian worker, the Polish worker, the East German worker, or the Yugoslavian worker.

Communism was, however, fantastic for the American worker. It’s no coincidence that the golden age of American equality, that period from the 1940s to the 1970s when the gap between CEOs and employees hit its all-time low, was almost exactly coterminous with the Cold War. As any capitalist will tell you, competition is good for the marketplace. It forces businesses to create better products and more efficient services for consumers. The same is true for capitalism itself: as a means of raising the living standards of an entire society, it never functioned better than when it was forced to compete with a rival economic system. [...]

An economy without a marketplace will produce only the bare minimum necessary for survival. But capitalism, in its rawest form, leads to the same result. Unless tempered by unionization or a social welfare state, the iron law of wages reduces the majority of workers to a subsistence level, while creating vast wealth for a tiny ownership class. Ronald Reagan advanced a false dichotomy between Communism and capitalism that is still with us, 25 years after his presidency ended. It’s true, as Louise Bryant said in “Reds,” that Communism would never have worked in the United States — but capitalism isn’t working as well without it.

http://www.salon.com/2014/04/01/communism_saved_the_american_worker_how_soviet_competition_raised_our_living_standards/

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[Balthazar]

It's interesting that you see results of communists activity almost every day. Current trade unions system, for example, was created by Communist Party of USA during 1920-early 1950s. The trade unions it's a typical tool of the communist parties in any country, it's a source of their power. However, the party was virtually destroyed by McCarthy's policy (prosecutions and massive arrests using false accusations).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism

[1369]

So what you are saying is that the threat of communism was what made capitalism great? I can see that.
What the US has right now looks nothing like a free market economy. No matter what its branded as.

[Bit_Happy]

...but capitalism isn’t working as well without it.
(OP: are you the author of the article?)

The USA does not have "capitalism" (not now or during the Cold War), and people who say it does are either poorly educated or intentionally deceptive.
Don't feel too bad about being "poorly educated", it happened to many Americans.
Sorry to "attack you", but you are so wrong about "capitalism" in the USSA.

[Balthazar]

1369

So-called "free market economy" is nothing more than transitional period between feudalism and civil society backed by mixed economy (protectionism, state capitalism or socialism are the possible options here). It can exist only in a short period of time, while old power institutions were destroyed already, but the new institutions haven't been established yet.

Currently we see corporate capitalism with elements of protectionist policy. In comparison with a society backed by free economy it's like a rollback to the feudalism approach. 

[Wilikon]

...but capitalism isn’t working as well without it.
(OP: are you the author of the article?)

The USA does not have "capitalism" (not now or during the Cold War), and people who say it does are either poorly educated or intentionally deceptive.
Don't feel too bad about being "poorly educated", it happened to many Americans.
Sorry to "attack you", but you are so wrong about "capitalism" in the USSA.

No. I am not the author. This is from salon.com. I don't automatically share stuff I like. I ALSO share stuff I dislike

[247crypto]

Fuck Jew Lunatic Communist Regime of USSR!

[bryant.coleman]

Fuck Jew Lunatic Communist Regime of USSR!

And fuck the lunatic capitalist regime of the USA.

[Wilikon]

So basically the author is saying it was good for the american workers to have millions of people suffering (according to his own description of what the USSR was to him).

What is original is a salon.com article (left leaning website) is pushing for the coming back of a totalitarian regime abusing their citizen as long as it was for the good of their own chosen humans.

I just wanted to make the point of why I was posting this link... Before we get a F you, F me spirited and so intellectually challenging fight or a Vod-Dank dance in this thread eventually...

[Nemo1024]

Interesting that you posted that article. I read similar arguments in the Russian press a few years back, where it was outlined how, despite human rights being downtrodden in USSR, the idolised vision of USSR among the Western worker class created a strong movement, which eventually lead to advances in human rights awareness in the West.

[Wilikon]

Interesting that you posted that article. I read similar arguments in the Russian press a few years back, where it was outlined how, despite human rights being downtrodden in USSR, the idolised vision of USSR among the Western worker class created a strong movement, which eventually lead to advances in human rights awareness in the West.

So without the sacrifice of all those poor souls for 70 or so years, the holy grail of a social security net would never have been conceived. Quick we need a country where million of people could be massacred for years so we can bring into our collective conscience killing is bad.

I vote for the second Congo War.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Congo_War

[NewLiberty]

A distinction should be made between public and private unions.
Private sector unions have increased worker safety and improved conditions.
Public employee unions negotiate with public employees who have no meaningful incentive to negotiate on behalf of their fiduciary trust with the taxpayers.  The union dues get them elected and the folks who pay the bill for the handouts (taxpayers) aren't even in the negotiating room.

[freedomno1]

Well to be honest Communism is a more equitable system when USED PROPERLY
Although the reason we are seeing a Red Tide in Latin America is because they tried American Capitalism and it didn't work well there after all a small country needs to manage policies differently than a big one etc.
Not one size fits all in political systems and economic ones

[NewLiberty]

Its also equitable to knock out my teeth because my grandfather has none, but I'm not likely to want that either.

[Wilikon]

Well to be honest Communism is a more equitable system when USED PROPERLY
Although the reason we are seeing a Red Tide in Latin America is because they tried American Capitalism and it didn't work well there after all a small country needs to manage policies differently than a big one etc.
Not one size fits all in political systems and economic ones

Too bad we have yet to see communism being used properly...

[Bit_Happy]

Well to be honest Communism is a more equitable system when USED PROPERLY
Although the reason we are seeing a Red Tide in Latin America is because they tried American Capitalism and it didn't work well there after all a small country needs to manage policies differently than a big one etc.
Not one size fits all in political systems and economic ones

Too bad we have yet to see communism being used properly...

We have yet to see (real) Capitalism being used properly either.

[Wilikon]

Well to be honest Communism is a more equitable system when USED PROPERLY
Although the reason we are seeing a Red Tide in Latin America is because they tried American Capitalism and it didn't work well there after all a small country needs to manage policies differently than a big one etc.
Not one size fits all in political systems and economic ones

Too bad we have yet to see communism being used properly...

We have yet to see (real) Capitalism being used properly either.

It has been a giant pendulum between two kind of philosophies, no matter their names and the rationalizations behind them, throughout History. Then the Entropy of corruption comes knocking at the end. Every time.

Bitcoin might be a real paradigm shift if it gets an hold on people's consciousness at large. But this is a subject for the main bitcoin forum 

[bryant.coleman]

We have yet to see (real) Capitalism being used properly either.

That is the real problem. The real capitalism is not used anywhere. For example, in the US, it is Socialism being dished out after re branded as Capitalism.

[freedomno1]

We have yet to see (real) Capitalism being used properly either.

That is the real problem. The real capitalism is not used anywhere. For example, in the US, it is Socialism being dished out after re branded as Capitalism.

Changing the world and innovation are related its sort of a series of steps towards something better, although I agree that a paradigm shift in the way we approach our economic systems and political ones like Bitcoin and even the internet may be moving society forward at a faster rate than any time preceding it in human history.

Perhaps we can get rid of the last 500 years of entrenched ideas in 50 given world communications and digital technologies changing our societies and correcting/optimizing society and how we perceive the world as a whole in the general collective consciousness.

That said bigotry will still unfortunately exist but it might get better overall

[niothor]

We have yet to see (real) Capitalism being used properly either.

That is the real problem. The real capitalism is not used anywhere. For example, in the US, it is Socialism being dished out after re branded as Capitalism.

That's the problem with all : socialism , communism , capitalism etc...In theory all sound ok. In real life , humans find a way to f*** it so good you need to invent a new concept.