In Soviet republics you could be murdered by the state every day, or declared an enemy of the pepople, or sent to gulag for a thing you didnt do - and all of th

In Soviet republics you could be murdered by the state every day, or declared an enemy of the pepople, or sent to gulag for a thing you didnt do - and all of those negative experiences ingrained a type of short-terminism among the society. The state could take away your apartment and make you lose everyrhing apart the clothes on your back - so why bother fixing the apartment, go and buy some nice clothes... at least you look good NOW and maybe you can keep them. This negative trainig (easy to lose everything) makes people care more about looks. With so many relatively poor people maybe it is some sort of a "lipstick effect" too - for everyone.