Which hypothetical system is overall worse?

[Profileid]

Because Russia prevented them all from prostituting themselves to USA for so long. There is simply nothing for Russia to extort from these poor folks.

Were you prostituting yourselves too then? Russia received a great deal of USAID assistance up until 2012,putting it alongside most of the world's developing countries.

USAID-supported projects helped introduce internationally recognized approaches in diagnostics and treatment of tuberculosis enabling the national TB program to decrease transmission and improve treatment success rates. Russia ranks 11th among 22 highest TB burden countries and the third among priority multi-drug resistant (MDR) and extensively drug resistant (XDR) TB countries worldwide.

The Russian electricity sector has successfully undergone substantial restructuring and reform since 1992. Early USAID assistance focused on restructuring and particularly the design of the future competitive electricity market. These principles and design guide today’s electricity market as implemented by the Government, the electric utility system companies and their advisors. In 2012, USAID has been helping Russia develop a smart grid and improve energy efficiency.

https://www.usaid.gov/news-informati...s/usaid-russia

http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PBAAE035.pdf

No, it has nothing to do with communism because there was never communism fully established. It was socialism coupled with extreme post-war deficit.

So the USSR wasn't actually communist? I'm reaching new levels of woke now.

[Sarmatian]

And there lies the difference between capitalists and communists. I see mankind as a very corrupt, self-interested race. You see it as a decent, caring one. Of course, I have far more evidence on my side and over the course of millennia. And man is never worse than when he has power, which power is a prerequisite for installing the communism we're talking about here. There's a reason communism never gets past the dictator stage. The people purporting to be bringing it in don't want to relinquish their newfound power - that is, if they ever intended to in the first place.

I can't really identify myself as a communist. I know a great deal of details about it but with it comes knowledge of its flaws.

Who told you I see mankind as caring one? I have no illusions about human nature. We all have an animal base within us and anyone saying it's thing of the past is lying to himself. What I'm talking about is that one thing that makes us different from the rest of the animal world. We have to understand it and use this knowledge for further development. Just to prevent ourselves from rolling back to apes.

It may come as a surprise to you but so far things are developing more or less the way communist theoreticians predicted. That's including collapse of USSR.

[Sarmatian]

Were you prostituting yourselves too then?

No I didn't. But some Russian so-called 'effective managers' sure did.

So the USSR wasn't actually communist? I'm reaching new levels of woke now.

That depends what period we're looking at. Only period aligned with communist theory was 1935-1950's. Everything else was far from it.

But that's big off-topic me think.

[Smitty]

I can't really identify myself as a communist. I know a great deal of details about it but with it comes knowledge of its flaws.

Who told you I see mankind as caring one? I have no illusions about human nature. We all have an animal base within us and anyone saying it's thing of the past is lying to himself. What I'm talking about is that one thing that makes us different from the rest of the animal world. We have to understand it and use this knowledge for further development. Just to prevent ourselves from rolling back to apes.

It may come as a surprise to you but so far things are developing more or less the way communist theoreticians predicted. That's including collapse of USSR.

But you seem to think we can develop that part of us that separates us from the apes. I don't. Or at least, not on the scale necessary to implement and maintain a system that depends entirely on it. Communism requires good people to institute it and good people to maintain it. It can never work for the simple reason that the vast majority of people are not good and never will be. And even those who are will always prioritize their families' needs over those of their neighbors.

If you're not a communist, what do you consider yourself? And where are you from, if I may ask? Idle curiosity here.