Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Joe NYC who wrote (152793)	10/3/2002 12:42:36 AM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1586575

They did not pull their money into defense any more than they did in the past. And the collapse was not a consequence of increased economic hardship, because there was not an increased economic hardship. The problem was that they (Soviet empire) were on the march, winning, confident, until they were seriously challenged for the first time in the 80s. They stopped winning, and upon reflection, realized that the goal of world domination will never be achieved. This caused a total crisis of confidence. I see........suddenly, there are a thousand points of light shining all around me. You mean R. Reagan caused the Soviet Union to have a massive anxiety attack, forcing them to seek the services of a shrink. It was at that point that the shrink diagnosed the Soviets as type A personalities, and convinced them their manifest destiny was not conquering the world, but to explore their inner selves, or the inner territories of Russia. Makes sense.......how come R.R. didn't win some kind of award? Not an academy award but something as big? On the economic front, the east block countries achieved a certain level, they hit the ceiling of how far a centrally planned system can go. Losening the grip was out of the question, because any losening of total control causes all kinds of problems to "spring up", such as Prague Spring, Solidarity etc. That may have been a factor but in the post soviet era, we have learned of numerous financial abuses as the siphoning off wealth to Communist party leaders who maintianed expensive dashas and large bank accounts in Switzerland. The extend of this is so small it is irrelevant. In any system, the elite has a better standard of living, and Communist elite was no exception. But in grand scheme of things, it was peanuts. There would have to be discoveries of billions to trillions of dollars, but they did not happen. Million dollars here and there - basically irrelevant amounts. As a consequence, the workers were paid slave wages and factory equipment became old and inefficient. See the above. The low wages were a consequence of the fact that the productivity in the centrally planned system has a ceiling, and the ceiling was reached. If the productivity does not go up, the wages stagnate. The diversion of significant amount of dollars into state coffers and excessive defense spending were always a problem. Nothing changed in the 80s. Other abuses were the payment of kick backs all along the system. That unfortunately became the way of life. In a market system, you just take out your wallet and buy what you can afford. In a centrally planned system, you may have money, but there are shortages, because there is no flexible connection (price) between the 2. Unfortunately, the corruption (bribes etc) is so deeply rooted now that it still persists, even after the fall of Communism, or may be even stronger, in sectors where free market doesn't exist (yet). Mainly, when one side of the transaction you have a person representing government entity. Its all these things and more. Oil production faltered due to antiquated machinery; farm production was so bad grain had to be imported yearly......more and more of the system broke down while operating expenses kept rising. It was not unlike the guy whose business is faltering but he keeps spending. His monthly nut keeps growing while his income declines......eventually there is a day of reckoning. In the case of the guy, he declares bankruptcy; with Russia, she went into default. A thousand things went wrong over a period of 90 years until one day Russia imploded. ted