> Back in the 70s, Westerners could very easily make the case that the USSR was corrupt, inefficient, hopelessly backwards I generally agree with you but I thi

> Back in the 70s, Westerners could very easily make the case that the USSR was corrupt, inefficient, hopelessly backwards I generally agree with you but I think you got timeline wrong. Which matters in this example. 70s in communist countries was a period of relative prosperity. The political repressions ceased, the economies got more consumer oriented, the arms race slowed down, the goverments got more technocratic. Communist countries started to catch up with Western consumption levels. Mass housing developments, car factories, Coca-cola and Pepsi in shops etc. Lot of younger generation had been happy to join the party not for ideological reasons but for the material prospects it opened. Then two events happened - first oil crisis and the financial markets dried up suddenly (many communist countries borrowed heavily when money was cheap in eurodollar), second Afganistan, Reagan and Star Wars programme (arms race again). Communist countries sliped from relative prosperity to austerity which resulted in fall of communism at the end of 80s. What I am saying is that the revolutions happen often after long period of relative prosperity when economy starts going downhill. And we have similiar circumstances brewing in China right now.