Socialism/Communism

I've been fortunate throughout my career to have been able to travel extensively. Two of these trips took me into the Soviet Union, once before the Iron Curtain came down and once, just after the Berlin wall fell. The first was an assignment in the Ukraine where I stayed for a short time in a city that had seen no foreigners in over 40 years. I certainly could fill several pages with details of the tragic things I saw but obviously this blog is not the place to do that so I will just touch on some of the key observations that will hopefully make the case for my opinion on the subject. First it was amazing to see the 2nd most powerful nation in the world with a third world standard of living for its citizens. The shortage of housing was so severe that 3 families routinely lived in one bedroom apartments. Everyone carried their own tool boxes in their vehicles because there were no garages or service stations as we know them. At the manufacturing plant I visited the parking lot had a wide variety of vehicles ranging from bicycles, scooters, and Lada's ( the old Russian jalopy). However the most numerous mode of transportation for the common man was the horse and wagon. Remember this was in 1988! Trees growing out of manholes (missing covers) in the middle of the main streets were a common sight. Of course everyone had a job (0 unemployment) but the wages were based on the value of the work as determined by the Government. If you made 100 rubles a week that was probably what you made 10 years earlier as well. The upside was that prices didn't go up much either. For example your telephone (if you had one) bill stayed at 15 rubles a month for years. But because there was no incentive or funds to improve it the system was terrible as you couldn't connect 1/2 the time and the other 1/2 the lines were overloaded and busy. Unions were not allowed and it was common for people that wanted to improve their earnings to cut their workday in 1/2. If they were paid 20 rubles a day for a 10 hour day they would only work 5 hours and hide the other 5 and voila! they doubled their hourly rate. Of course I must not forget to mention that the government or "Party Members" lived in regal homes and drove BMW's and Volvo's. The second trip was into East Germany just after it opened up and the first thing that struck me was the condition of the roadways. Driving from Frankfurt along the highways towards the Eastern section you enjoyed the well paved autobahn with the roadside amenities, billboards, precise road direction markings etc. But as I crossed over into the Eastern bloc the road turned to a dingy grey with many cracks and potholes. The only writing was graffiti on stone bridges and dilapidated fences. The homes looked weather beaten and unkempt and the infrastructure of the towns and cities needed massive repairs. Overall both trips were depressing and truly showed what happens when the State is in control of everything. When people cede their freedoms and control over their lives to the government there are very few decisions left for the individual to make. The folks here in North America who believes in "big" government with massive social spending and the redistribution of wealth (take away from those that have and give to those that don't) should visit countries with this type of system and then maybe they would see the light. The next time you hear of expanded social spending, new government regulations, Supreme Court Justices making law instead of interpreting it, stop and think about the old Soviet Union and Venezuala among others. The Russians fought a revolution to get a "Communism/Socialist" system but thankfully we are moving at a slower pace and there is still a possibility that a strong leader will emerge to stem the tide. For the sake of my Grandchildren I can only hope.