I think those who elect to be free are standing in your way of seducing the masses with the dream of state employment in exchange for their devotion to a regime.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/business/worldbusiness/23sweden.html "Swedenâs Fix for Banks: Nationalize Them"
Oh, it wasn't a permanent Nationalization. Just long enough to clean up the books, wipe-out the shareholders, and fire the idiot management who were central in the crises... The alternative would have been to leave the same management in place collecting their salary and bonuses and profiting from what amounted to was their collective failure. But that would be kind of stupid, wouldn't it....?
Communism is like the unicorn in the sky. It doesn't exist, and it doesn't work in the long run. However, I do think as the world's economies start overlapping each other, government should play some kind of role to help their own country maintain their comparative advantages. However, in the short run, and if Communism is ran well, it just might work for a little while. Here is an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yru1C-RE7lc
Labor camp?The cost of the ticket on a plane from Moscow to Vladivistok was 5 bucks.Medicine and eduation was free.Carpenter could use the same clinics as ministers for free!The doors was open when you out to a store.And so on and on.. You people have no clue how it actually has been.
I had a different take on Communism then some of the other posters. From the top of my head: When I was 5 or 6 years old we were told we could not go to church any more - as a kid I welcomed that. People prayed secretly. Those who owned productive assets, farms, livestock, machinery etc had to bring it into collectives. The industrious lost everything and the unskilled or lazy became equal partners with them in the collective. Fathers of some of my schoolmates disappeared (taken to Siberia). Some of the wives had given up on them after 7-10 years and remarried. The men eventually showed up, broken, ill, leading to more confusion. I have secretly listened to Voice of America on our tube radio and marked the spot on the glass scale. My dad beat me up because he feared someone would spot that we listened to Voice of America or Radio Free Europe and we would get into big trouble. Assignments in all enterprise were given based on party loyalty and not on competence. Artists who did not join the C Party never had a chance to show their work or perform again. Remember standing in line at the store for bread. If one did not get there on time (to be standing in line) there was no bread that day. The stores were mainly empty, one had to bribe the employees to get prior notice of something worthy coming, There was usually just one size when it came to shoes or clothing. They have killed wine culture, they plowed under small vinyards and they blended all wine so only two kinds existed red or white. In my town only the police and a doctor had a car. If you wanted to have a car you would have to wait 10 years, for a telephone installation 15-20 yrs. After completing my education I had no choice of employment, they stamped in my national ID book where I had to work. Even though I was talented I was not admitted to the university where I applied for for 4 years because my dad was not a communist. At my workplace there was a copying machine in a locked room and when I made copies a communist stood over me to see what I was copying. This person's sole task was to control the room and log the activity. The hardest thing was to be exposed to the constant lies of the state media. Because we knew everything was a lie we automatically presumed the opposite was true. We hated History as it was taught, our teachers hated it too and we hated lawyers and businessmen because they were servants of the state. Little did we know that History is fascinating and business is dynamic and interesting. I still hate lawyers though. The longtime president of my country - who was installed by the Communists - had no fingernails because they were all pulled out by communists (before they figured out he was their guy). After I left risking my life and eventually ended up in the US, my father passed away and my portion of the inheritance of our 800sf house was taken away by the state. My mother had many sleepless nights because she dreaded that the government would put another family in one of the tiny rooms. Eventually my brother who still lived there bribed someone and we were able to buy my share of the house back. Is this what some people are reminiscing of so fondly? Just my 2c. Regards, 222bc
5 bucks? I wonder what idiot would exchange bucks for worthless rubels? Maybe you. Communism is for the losers and demagogues like you. Look at the russian people at the age of 60. They all look like they worked all life in a labor camp.