[so called east]

This is on wealth – from the eastern bloc (at least one representative), as requested. The first 20 yrs of my life were spent in two socialist countries, incl. USSR (later, Canada and US). I used to think that socialism was very good for children and the old people. Maybe less so for ambitious young folk… Looking back at the life in socialism, I have to say that – compared to many people in the US – we were VERY rich – even the poor among us. It is, of course, all about how one defines wealth. If it is the amount of material possessions – then capitalism likely wins. But everything else… well, there’s no comparison. What we had – and today that seems to me like a giant luxury – is a lack of concern about money. That is, the constant worry about how much money one has, is it enough to afford the latest “in” thing (or keeping up with the Joneses), can I pay all the bills… etc. (And yes, not all socialist countries were the same (Romania, part. in the 80s, was a different matter)). But generally, we had a place to live (the village folk lived the best), more than enough to eat (and the food was fresh and of high quality – no high fructose corn syrup for the commies – we could not afford it), energy that was subsidized (yes, all that Soviet gas and oil were provided to the socialist countries at a deep discount), education was good and free (this is what got the socialists – most people were too well educated), health care was free – but not fancy by any means, there was mostly free child care, transportation was free or subsidized, retirement at 55 for women with kids, 60 for the others.
And yes – we lacked in the material goods department … but we had TIME. We had lots of time to forge friendships, travel, read books, go to theater (subsidized) and cinema, garden, cook, visit with family, learn languages, study music, do sports, develop hobbies, talk with neighbours and friends met in the street, organise field trips, sing, and – of course – think about the things we were missing that the Westerners had. Like fancy cars, nice clothes, … and all else. As someone said – people like stuff. Socialism was not about a lot of stuff – it tried to do something else, but few of us understood it. We were, to be fair – also under a tremendous pro-western and anti-socialism propaganda – day in and day out. I know, I was there. The struggle to destroy socialism in the socialist countries was real, persistent, and vicious. I fell for it then – and only today I finally see it for what it was. The wealth that was accumulated by the people was stolen (Yeltsin, anyone?) – in that sense, the West won. Today, I remember fondly – the luxurious feel of a life in which money (and worry about money) did not predominate. It is not a luxury I can afford now…

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