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Polish society was very heavily wounded by 50 years of hardcore socialism combined with the police state (at the hands of the Soviets). The levels of trust peop

by badpun 7y ago

Polish society was very heavily wounded by 50 years of hardcore socialism combined with the police state (at the hands of the Soviets). The levels of trust people have towards each other are still abysmally low. I wouldn't use Poland as an example, because it is (like other post-Soviet block states) still very much not normal.

Tade0 7y ago
I don't know about that. My parents both knew their neighbors very well(which made a lot of sense in times where you'd need a network of people to find some of the more rare goods), while I have no little to no relationship with mine - and I was born just before the previous system collapsed.
- badpun 7y ago
  I don't deny that people are more lonely now in Poland that they were in socialism. In my opinion, it's the combination of convenience (like you said, people used to need each other for simple things, and now they can just buy everything), alienating electronics entertainment and capitalism, where everyone needs to paddle very hard to get ahead or merely stay afloat. It seemed to me that my parents were happier under socialism than they are now, even though now their material standard of living is greater by like a magnitude. Regarding trust, I would say there was very little trust in the socialist times as well. You don't need a lot of trust to borrow some salt from a neighbor or even trade a favors (ex. you get me ahead in the queue to buy a car and in exchange I get you access to buying foreign holidays), which is what people mainly were doing in the socialism. You do however need a lot of trust to start a business together. Since in socialism all people were just cogs in the giant socialist machine, they never needed to develop trust towards each other. Now, in capitalism, it's backfiring.
buboard 7y ago
And who would you use?
- badpun 7y ago
  Countries that didn't have any major plights in the past couple of centuries? Like maybe Switzerland, Scandinavian countries, maybe the US (if we exclude the black population).

by badpun 7y ago

Tade0 7y ago

I don't know about that. My parents both knew their neighbors very well(which made a lot of sense in times where you'd need a network of people to find some of the more rare goods), while I have no little to no relationship with mine - and I was born just before the previous system collapsed.

badpun 7y ago
I don't deny that people are more lonely now in Poland that they were in socialism. In my opinion, it's the combination of convenience (like you said, people used to need each other for simple things, and now they can just buy everything), alienating electronics entertainment and capitalism, where everyone needs to paddle very hard to get ahead or merely stay afloat. It seemed to me that my parents were happier under socialism than they are now, even though now their material standard of living is greater by like a magnitude. Regarding trust, I would say there was very little trust in the socialist times as well. You don't need a lot of trust to borrow some salt from a neighbor or even trade a favors (ex. you get me ahead in the queue to buy a car and in exchange I get you access to buying foreign holidays), which is what people mainly were doing in the socialism. You do however need a lot of trust to start a business together. Since in socialism all people were just cogs in the giant socialist machine, they never needed to develop trust towards each other. Now, in capitalism, it's backfiring.

buboard 7y ago

And who would you use?

badpun 7y ago
Countries that didn't have any major plights in the past couple of centuries? Like maybe Switzerland, Scandinavian countries, maybe the US (if we exclude the black population).