“SPREADING THE WEALTH AROUND”
Whenever I hear this I think of the political cronies in the Soviet system who all had their dachas in the countryside and whose wives shopped in Paris while the rest of the country waited for yet another five year plan to provide them with simple necessities.
RE: “SPREADING THE WEALTH AROUND”
and: “Whenever I hear this I think of the political cronies in the Soviet system who all had their dachas in the countryside and whose wives shopped in Paris while the rest of the country waited for yet another five year plan to provide them with simple necessities.”
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Precisely! I visited the old Soviet Union in ‘76 and ‘85. 1976 was a real eye-opener. By ‘85 Gorbachev had just taken power and things were actually opening up a bit.
The 1976 trip was pretty horrifying — NO choices in anything for those (Moscow and Leningrad) residents. If you wanted green beans, you bought USSR green beans in the govt. markets. Lenin’s picture stared down at you in the pathetic excuses for clothing stores as you picked through hideously flawed garments.
We were told that everyone had a job, but that a taxi driver earned the same as a surgeon! Anyone wonder why the higher ups in USSR government left the country for THEIR OWN care?
I tell you, it was all horrifying. No quality control in anything, people moved about like the walking dead, seriously. NO motivation to do well, people living in shared-family government apartments, shoddy autos and trucks everywhere, only two government brands, and wait lists for years to get them. Phone service amazingly bad, and again, a year’s wait to get a phone.
Want more? So many memories of those trips come flooding back. I became interested in all of this and wanted to see the “iron curtain” countries for myself after having grown up hearing about Communism from teachers in — hold onto your hats — LA Unified Schools. In sixth grade I had a great teacher who warned of Kruschev and his “We will bury you” speech and I never forgot it.
Upshot is that we do NOT want this type of regime in this country. We wouldn’t get it immediately with an Obama and his cohorts, but it would creep in — we are already well on the way, re universal health care, “sharing the wealth,” government intervention into all the banks, et al.
And so many in this country just don’t get it or care. I’m glad I’m not so young anymore.