On Thursday, May 1, 2003, at 04:08 AM, Thomas Shaddack wrote:
IMHO, long-term psychical stress, so common in raging capitalism with nonexistent or weak safety nets - worrying about keeping/losing/finding job, fear of a longer-term illness that would cause you to lose job and medical insurance - has much worse effect than occassional exposure to low levels of chemical contaminations or not-really-that-loud[1] sounds.
In a free society, nothing stops an employee from seeking a lower stress, less demanding, lower profit margin employer, lower-paying job. In America, these low-paid employees are called "public teachers."
We often forget about psychological stress, resulting from the quest for higher and higher "effectivity" and other factors of Holy Capitalism, when evaluating situations. Communism was nothing starry, but when you kept your mouth shut up, you had time for yourself, for your family. My dad was "nationalizing" electronics parts for me, from his workplace, which helped (or maybe caused) me to learn electronics.
And our teachers in public schools are similarly free to not operate at their full potential, or even close to it, and yet be paid a moderate salary. They can even steal stuff the way your father did. (But they'd better not do it in corporations such as the one I worked for: we fired their asses. No severance pay, and a blacklist from working in other companies. We told prospective employers of their thefts.)
Many things were available without having to pay for them, which lowered barriers to entry. Hightech books were cheaper.
Probably because they were either pirated or were rehashes/copies of Western books. Not in all cases. I have a few Soviet physics and math texts written by some of the greats of Soviet physics and math. Printed on cheap paper, with the authors barely compensated, they were certainly cheap. And, of course, often prone to having ideology inserted by the commisars. My first roommate in college was from Hong Kong. He had the Feynman Lectures printed on rice paper editions with the print bleeding through. Very inexpensive. Feynman, of course, saw no royalties. Which is OK, but understand that your country was operating as a Napster country.
Schools had clubs for students with interests - chemistry, electronics, computers - the Regime needed to breed the next generation of skilled workers.
Do you think American schools do not have such clubs? I was in a dozen of them, and President of several.
From sewing clothes - if you were dissatisfied with what was available in stores, you got cloth and a sewing machine and made something yourself
It had a lot of drawbacks as well - lack of material wealth was the most notable one - but it wasn't overly difficult to partially compensate; you just had to be able to do things yourself. - to electronics. If you were able to repair things - TVs, electroinstallations, plumbing - you were widely in demand and you had privileged access to scarce goods[2] for exchange for your services. Virtually everyone was a member of this "gray" economy; what you knew was more important for your real social position than what you owned. People were more creative - it was making life more comfortable. These skills are vanishing as more and more people rely on money than on their own improvisation skills instead. The cities were gray and dull - but I sometimes doubt if a genuine grayness wasn't better than faked and empty cheery colors of mass-produced advertising flooding the cities now. People had time to read books; today they usually return from the job late, too tired for anything more challenging than plopping down in front of a TV. The unhappiness and resulting escapism mirrors in increased demand for drugs and amusement industry, quick and low-efforts ways to "get out". There was escapism before as well - but it was generally more creative; cottaging was very common, together with numerous kinds of other hobbies. The change from active to passive leisure activities, the turn from doing to consuming, disturbs me a lot.</RANT>
You seem to be pining for central control, for state subsidies, for communism. I doubt you'll like what we have to offer on this list. A pity. You seem like a reasonable, even nice, person. We've had some good exchanges in e-mail about language. But your rant above says you would probably be happier under state socialism, which makes this list your absolute worse enemy. Take care of yourself in whichever socialist paradise you can find. Albania is out, as of a few years ago....Vietnam is rapidly going free market...China is an industrial giant with a Politburo...perhaps you could try Myanmar?
Remarkable percentage of local population thinks fondly about the Old Days where there was no rat-race, when you didn't live in fear you will get a pink slip, when you didn't have to worry about day to day income.
Free markets are often rough. They mean there is no one to provide food for those who have no skills to offer. Think of it as evolution in action. The burnoff of useless eaters will be glorious. --Tim May