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On a side note, being from Eastern Europe as well, I think that, at least mentally, it was different being poor here in the 80s/90s than it was in the western w

On a side note, being from Eastern Europe as well, I think that, at least mentally, it was different being poor here in the 80s/90s than it was in the western world. Basically you and all of your neighbors and everyone else around you would be poor (unless you were a party member). Everybody had the same starting point when democracy arrived and there was real incentive for factories to come up with a good balance between quality and cost.

romanovcode 5y ago
I have the same feeling. I was poor when I was a kid because of the fall of Soviet Union. But I did not feel bad or worse then everyone else becaue 95% of people were dirt poor back then. Therefore I never got any psychological difficulties with it since I never was discriminated against. When everyone is poor you don't think about it too much. For example, pretty much everyone had the lunch tickets at school so nobody was ashamed of it at all. Also note that there was no instagram/facebook/yt so you could not even compare yourself with people you don't know as kids can do now. In a way I am greatful for my experience. Gives a lot of perspective and sympathy for people who struggle with money.
- ido 5y ago
  It reminds me of a story my grandfather told me about his time as a refugee during WW2 (my grandparents were teenagers when the war broke & fled without their families east into the Soviet Union as the Nazis advanced): they were moved to Uzbekistan and according to him they were poor, but they had just enough to eat and everybody else around them were just as poor. He said the locals treated them well & there wasn't really a reason to feel bad about being poor, it was just the situation everyone was at and didn't even really imagine it being any different.
- hackflip 5y ago
  Capuchin monkeys are perfectly happy with cucumbers until another monkey gets a grape.
WalterBright 5y ago
> unless you were a party member The truth about communism.

romanovcode 5y ago

I have the same feeling. I was poor when I was a kid because of the fall of Soviet Union. But I did not feel bad or worse then everyone else becaue 95% of people were dirt poor back then. Therefore I never got any psychological difficulties with it since I never was discriminated against. When everyone is poor you don't think about it too much. For example, pretty much everyone had the lunch tickets at school so nobody was ashamed of it at all. Also note that there was no instagram/facebook/yt so you could not even compare yourself with people you don't know as kids can do now. In a way I am greatful for my experience. Gives a lot of perspective and sympathy for people who struggle with money.

ido 5y ago
It reminds me of a story my grandfather told me about his time as a refugee during WW2 (my grandparents were teenagers when the war broke & fled without their families east into the Soviet Union as the Nazis advanced): they were moved to Uzbekistan and according to him they were poor, but they had just enough to eat and everybody else around them were just as poor. He said the locals treated them well & there wasn't really a reason to feel bad about being poor, it was just the situation everyone was at and didn't even really imagine it being any different.
hackflip 5y ago
Capuchin monkeys are perfectly happy with cucumbers until another monkey gets a grape.

WalterBright 5y ago

> unless you were a party member The truth about communism.