My observations of being in Mongolia after the Communist economy collapsed.
1) State provided housing was abandoned. There was no heat or utilities because the govt had no credit.
2) People moved out to the country, lived in yurts and burned cowpies for heat. No personal ownership of land since it was owned by the people, so it appeared to work.
3) Wealth. The new wealth became cattle and horses. A side note, when I was in Africa, people wore their wealth in gold jewelry.
4) All the state run businesses were abandoned and stripped. I visted a state run dairy farm. This was a large operation, with big buildings and facilities. completely stripped but the one chilling observation I had was looking up, and around to see it stripped and then looking down. I saw the gutter chain for removing manure was still there and full of manure. This told me that no one ran the chain the last time.............It happened FAST, it was not orderly.
5) I met one guy in a rural community who was putting together a local credit union. I asked him where he learned how to do that. He said he had one under communism but had to start another one. This told me that there were POCKETS OF FREEDOM.
6) If the United states had not stepped in to help (lots of English signs all over), mostly in the capital where the politicians were, it would have been utter chaos. THERE WILL BE NO ONE AVAILALBE TO HELP US .
7) They were rediscovering their heritage, learning about Genghis Khan. Their history had been suppressed under communism. Every other business was named after Genghis Khan.
Oh, boy - yurts and cow pies - I’m THERE!!!!!