I haven't been to those places lately, but at least they have beautiful cities. When I speak of the Eastern Bloc, I am talking about not being able to find vegetables, or walking into a "store" where there is one item in the window. Do you remember that funny advertisement (I think it was for Yellow Pages) where the guy had a shop called "Bob's Rug?" ANd he only had one rug in the store? That's what I'm talking about. We would joke about that: "Pavel's Purse" or "Cristov's Crystal Vase." You would walk into these stores in the "business" district and there was one thing to buy - if even that. The next day, the store would be closed. We had a man on the train in East Berlin come over to us and bend down to look at our shoes (high top trainers). They had never seen shoes like that, stuff we totally took for granted.
I'm talking about cities that are falling into ruin around you. Some of the beautiful medieval towns in south Bohemia where the buildings had not been painted for 60 years and stuff was crumbling and everything was gray and drab. The elegant water fountain in the town square where the water nymph's face was missing along with several limbs. It was very, very sad because you knew that at one time, it was a gloriously beautiful place. Imagine this in our cities and what that would be like. Imagine broken cars and old appliances dumped on the side of the road. Medians and yards that are never mown - no home that stands out for someone to be proud of. Or for an even better visual, just read "Atlas Shrugged." Or drive through the Detroit.
I'm also talking about what living like that does to people spiritually and psychologically. They walk differently; they speak differently. They whisper in public. They always look over their shoulder. You guys think I'm kidding... I'm not. I felt like I was in the middle of a bad spy movie when I was over there. And this was after the Berlin wall had come down.
What it all boils down to is prosperity in the country. It is a well known fact that richer countries do a better job of taking care of environment. Example: West Germany Vs. East Germany. Same thing with maintaining buildings, parks, roads etc.
Prosperity is better served by a system which builds incentives for hard work. Creating more dependents with handouts and high taxes are the opposite to human nature for work hard.
It is really not much more complicated than that. Every policy Obama has pushed is exactly the opposite of basic human nature.