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Know the difference (lemmygrad.ml)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

A couple more things about "bad" Soviet apartments:

Small patch of land to grow flowers (or potatoes, whichever your babushka prefers)
Probably close to a school, a grocery store or some sort of public transport
Walls made of real cement and not flammable cardboard
Were built to last 50 years, some still going strong after 70 years (at least in my city)

Yes, there were queues, and you could be waiting for years to get an apartment, I would still prefer the Soviet approach 100 times over.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

A note about those queues.

I've been thinking a lot recently about the difference between policy and material conditions. The USSR wouldn't have had queues (or very long queues) if they were a rich country like the United States. Any socialist country that is rich would have plenty of materials that nobody would ever have to wait in line (at least not a long line, no longer than in current day USA)

Of course, under socialism, certain excesses would be limited, but at the same time, if your country literally already had what it needed because of the overcapacity built by capitalism, then under socialism, basically all needs would be met very easily.

I need to do some more reading by other people on this topic because I'm no expert, but it makes sense to me.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

The USSR wouldn’t have had queues (or very long queues) if they were a rich country like the United States.

Exactly, absolutely brilliant point. This is why your socialism is only as advanced as your productive forces and productive output. Otherwise you're building communism by decree rather than by degree.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 weeks ago

you could be waiting for years to get an apartment

...which is what happens under capitalism anyway if you ever do get to own a house, so this argument doesn't even make sense

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago

Here there weren't any patches of land, that's why we've got allotment gardens, so that you could do your gardening and leisure there.