Would you rather live in the Soviet system or the American?

[Nationes Pii Redivivi]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Solzhenitsyn

Imprisoned during the Stalin era. In fact, it says that hi sentence ended the month Stalin died.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Soviet_dissidents

[Atlanticatia]

The whole, you know, authoritarianism thing, gulags, and state censorship don't really appeal to me. You can find universal health care and subsidized education and housing in many of the (capitalist) social democracies of the world.. I mean, I don't think you need to live in the USSR to receive public services and social benefits.

[United Marxist Nations]

There should be a neither option.

Both are extreme bastardizations of relatively decent economic systems, due to authoritarianism and corruption.

That's not the point if the thread; I even said in the OP that I am a critic of the Soviet system.

[Ruridova]

Personally, I think my life would be better under the system I presently live in, the American one. Under the Soviet system, I would probably wind up in trouble with the KGB for not toeing the party line.

Hows that universal healthcare treating you? Oh wait...

Guess I'll have to settle for the basic rights of free thought and self-expression.

[Communal Ecotopia]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_the_Soviet_Union

Can you give examples from that era from that article about people being punished for criticism?

However, censorship was not completely absent from this era. Emmanuil Kazakevich’s 1962 novel, “Spring on the Oder,” was posthumously injected in 1963 with descriptions of American bigotry, selfishness, and racism which was not in the novel originally.[6] These examples of Anti-Westernization indicate that works were still expurgated for propaganda, but censorship declined with Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization. Also, Dr. Zhivago was refused publication in 1957 and had to be published from Milan. When Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize, he could not freely travel to accept it in 1958.

[United Marxist Nations]

Imprisoned during the Stalin era. In fact, it says that hi sentence ended the month Stalin died.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Soviet_dissidents

That page doesn't prove anything; you're supposed to prove punishment, not that there was dissidents, in the era.

[United Marxist Nations]

Hows that universal healthcare treating you? Oh wait...

Guess I'll have to settle for the basic rights of free thought and self-expression.

I'd rather have healthcare, myself.

[Elam-Kurdistan]

Soviet Union, I think I coulkd have done quite well for myself in the USSR, Politburo member or KGB General perhaps. Maybe even leader.

[Fenexia]

Guess I'll have to settle for the basic rights of free thought and self-expression.

I'd rather have healthcare, myself.

to be fairly honest, THEIR universal healthcare wasnt that great.

[United Marxist Nations]

Can you give examples from that era from that article about people being punished for criticism?

However, censorship was not completely absent from this era. Emmanuil Kazakevich’s 1962 novel, “Spring on the Oder,” was posthumously injected in 1963 with descriptions of American bigotry, selfishness, and racism which was not in the novel originally.[6] These examples of Anti-Westernization indicate that works were still expurgated for propaganda, but censorship declined with Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization. Also, Dr. Zhivago was refused publication in 1957 and had to be published from Milan. When Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize, he could not freely travel to accept it in 1958.

Not getting to go get a Nobel Prize is a bit different from the punishments he was implying; however, I didn't specify, so you get a cookie.

[MERIZoC]

I wouldn't mind living in the Soviet system for a bit, just to see what it was like.

[Communal Ecotopia]

However, censorship was not completely absent from this era. Emmanuil Kazakevich’s 1962 novel, “Spring on the Oder,” was posthumously injected in 1963 with descriptions of American bigotry, selfishness, and racism which was not in the novel originally.[6] These examples of Anti-Westernization indicate that works were still expurgated for propaganda, but censorship declined with Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization. Also, Dr. Zhivago was refused publication in 1957 and had to be published from Milan. When Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize, he could not freely travel to accept it in 1958.

Not getting to go get a Nobel Prize is a bit different from the punishments he was implying; however, I didn't specify, so you get a cookie.

Still stifling freedom of expression...and thank you.

[United Marxist Nations]

I'd rather have healthcare, myself.

to be fairly honest, THEIR universal healthcare wasnt that great.

It wasn't that bad; in fact, IIRC, their life expectancy was higher than that of the US for a long time, and Cuba's still is.

[Atlanticatia]

to be fairly honest, THEIR universal healthcare wasnt that great.

It wasn't that bad; in fact, IIRC, their life expectancy was higher than that of the US for a long time, and Cuba's still is.

Most developed countries in the world have universal healthcare. It's not unique to the USSR or Cuba.

[Ruridova]

Guess I'll have to settle for the basic rights of free thought and self-expression.

I'd rather have healthcare, myself.

I'd like healthcare too, but in the US I can say that the government should change shit. Not so in the USSR.

[Calimera II]

American system. Soviet system is simply shit.

[Valkalan]

Do I want a modicum of freedom with the opportunity to enrich myself or do I want to be repressed and starving? Let me think. Obviously, the American system is by far the more palatable. And seeing as how I do in fact live in the US, I know for a fact that the problems exist within the US system are easily manageable.

Find one famine the USSR experienced following the end if the War famine of '48 (called that because it was caused by war damage).

Is that so? All I see is incompetent economic management, at best.

[Kubrath]

If everyone had the professions they wanted, no one would work as a cleaner or a garbage man. Guaranteed profession of one's choice is a poison to a country's economy as is the lack of competition.

[Fenexia]

to be fairly honest, THEIR universal healthcare wasnt that great.

It wasn't that bad; in fact, IIRC, their life expectancy was higher than that of the US for a long time, and Cuba's still is.

source? let me guess, castro himself?

[Washington Resistance Army]

Neither, but if I had to choose; American.

[The Grey Wolf]

Neither, I despise both.

[Calimera II]

I wouldn't mind living in the Soviet system for a bit, just to see what it was like.

Shit. It was pure shit.

[Malgrave]

Neither. I'd rather live in Atlee's economic system.

[Kubrath]

Guess I'll have to settle for the basic rights of free thought and self-expression.

I'd rather have healthcare, myself.

With their dogmatic acceptance of bs science, I doubt your healthcare would be any better than visiting a witchdoctor.

[Kelinfort]

Do I get freedom of speech, press, assembly, right to refuse unauthorised search and seizure along with the right to a fair and just trial?