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

To: SilentZ who wrote (362338)	12/11/2007 10:32:22 PM
From: bentway	Respond to of 1572033

"Now, were the communists able to provide for that? It seems so only in theory." I wasn't there, but many Americans at the time went there and came back with glowing stories. This was during the depression, so you have to ask, "compared to what". The Soviets weren't connected to the capitalist forces that collapsed and were in the midst of striving for self-sufficiency. My guess is that for most people, both sucked, but the Soviets had started lower and were moving up at the time, while westerners had just had the props knocked out and had been dropped sharply lower than they had previously been.

To: SilentZ who wrote (362338)	12/12/2007 1:13:41 AM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1572033

>He didn't have any other way to explain how the communists were able to provide for THEIR downtrodden and elderly while WE could not. Now, were the communists able to provide for that? It seems so only in theory. Its true that things in the Soviet Union looked better. For an example, there was very little new construction in the US during the 1930s.......the only cities that saw any new construction at all were probably NYC, Miami, LA and maybe Chicago. The construction industry was moribund. And what few buildings that were built were mostly in the style of art deco/art nouveau from the late 1920s. Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union, they were building skyscraper after skyscraper. Imagine going from a city that has seen no new construction for years while the existing buildings are deteriorating from lack of maintenance, and then going over to Moscow and seeing a construction boom. The contrast must have been fairly impressive. I think what must have happened is that the American Intelligentsia of the time articulated what the American worker must have sensed and experienced......that the depression had been brought on by the greed that capitalism invokes in some people. I suspect that's why they went after Hollywood.....a lot of the A.I. probably concentrated in the film industry. They were putting out films like the Grapes of Wrath, Gone with the Wind, the Wizard of Oz, etc....that put into question the very essence of what was the American experience.