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Starting with slide 9, the US is compared on "specifics". It points to our energy and transportation infrastructure leading to a bigger crisis for the US. I th
by hendler 18y ago
Starting with slide 9, the US is compared on "specifics". It points to our energy and transportation infrastructure leading to a bigger crisis for the US.
I think the latter slides are interesting, and energy/transportation is by far our biggest vulnerability, but not necessarily accurate, and even leaning towards trying to scare. My opinion was reinforced by slide 19:
" the Soviet union was much better prepared for economic collapse than the US is". I wasn't there, but I guess because it didn't have as far to fall. The US may have to get used to less - but I believe that a free society eventually leads education and change. Because we are a democracy, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
- DenisM 18y agoYeah, that was actually his entire point - Soviet Union was well prepared because soviet economy was crap to start with for average citizen, so collpase wasn't much worse and many survival skills acquired under soviet rule came out surprisingly handy in the chaos of the nineties. I think he is pulling our (collective) leg. :)
- jsn 18y agothe main shock for an average soviet citizen quickly becoming a russian citizen probably wasn't the abrupt drop in the quality of life [though there sure was quite a drop]. it was more about how to live when nobody tells you what to do every minute and when you're on your own. people who came up with a dead simple idea to 1) borrow some cash, 2) visit europe, buy some Snickers (tm) [i kid you not, it really was Snickers for some reason], 3) sell it in russia from a makeshift tent -- those people were turning hundreds percents of profit, doubling their operations weekly and making huge fortunes [by local standards anyway] in months. and, well, one in a thousand had the mindset to pull that off. others were living in poverty in spite of the whole world of available opportunities.