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It's a very simple premise, but I've always felt it to be true. Give people the sense of being in control, or at least have the potential to be in control (Demo
by hansbo 15y ago
It's a very simple premise, but I've always felt it to be true. Give people the sense of being in control, or at least have the potential to be in control (Democracy, property rights, et.c.), and they will work hard for a better future. This tends to give a lot of stable growth.
- alexro 15y agoIn Soviet Union people had no property rights but there were millions enthusiastically working for the future. Now there are property rights and everybody fights for them. Also, investment bankers economics is killing the West too.
- bdunbar 15y agomillions enthusiastically working for the future. Were these the 14 million in Gulag, or the 20 million that Stalin murdered?
- alexro 15y agoFunny enough how otherwise objective HN community tends to support bold statements like this, which usually come up in a brainwashing activities. The only fact that gets tossed out is that Russia was never a peaceful country, and there were never times without a violent regime. How about this: for every 1 who suffered in Soviet Union there were 10 who benefited. But how many do suffer now for every 1 oligarch to benefit?
- bdunbar 15y agoHow about this: for every 1 who suffered in Soviet Union there were 10 who benefited 'Suffering' is a funny way to pronounce 'murder'. But how many do suffer now for every 1 oligarch to benefit? Speaking of 'brain wash' - buzzword much?
- alexro 15y agoYou take bold statement too literary. 20 million died in the WW2, they were murdered by Germans.
- bdunbar 15y agoI excluded people killed in that war. I'm counting people killed in purges and the Ukraine famine before Josef and Adolph got feisty with each other in 1940.
- alexro 15y agoThe famine wasn't specific to Ukraine wasn't it? Southern areas of Russia suffered the same if not worse. Currently the Russian population is degrading without any purges and people die from poor conditions and criminals (including police raids) in their cities. But before there millions who really worked for the future and now there are few.
- bdunbar 15y agoBut before there millions who really worked for the future and now there are few. If you're pining for the days of Stalin, and people who pull together for a common future, North Korea amped Stalinism to 11. Joe Bob says 'check it out'.
- Symmetry 15y agoNot so enthusiastically from what I hear. Wasn't "We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us" a pretty common joke under Brezhnev?
- alexro 15y agoBy pretending to work you don't usually get first into space, build huge cities and otherwise achieve anything.
- neilk 15y agoYeah, I think you should try this argument on a Ukranian sometime.[1] In this and other comments, you seem to be attributing all the achievements of the Soviet Union to their ideology. That's certainly a factor, but it's about as dumb as Americans claiming their nation is blessed by God with a special destiny. The Russians had just kicked out a severely anachronistic monarchy, so achieving progress was almost inevitable. And the Soviet Union had an empire of its own after World War II as well, and their centralized system was very good at capturing resources for a Moscow-centric elite. But I agree it's not black and white, either. Just as the USA sometimes lives up to its own ideals in an inspiring way, you could find examples of that in the history of the Soviet Union too. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor
- alexro 15y agoHolodomor was part of the Ukranian political agenda during Yushchenko ruling and is a made up 'fact'. During same Holodomor times people dies through out Russia as well, and the event was caused by coincided mismanagement and bad seasonal conditions.