FreedomPatriot
boosted
It was, for its middle decades. Culture is upstream from politics and economics.
USSR had the second-longest economic boom ever recorded, going from one of the poorest economies on Earth in the 1930s to the second-largest by the late 1960s. Savings rate of ~65%, and a surprising enthusiasm for risk-taking and innovation.
Then the culture tipped into failure mode, and everything else followed. Free market economies with failing cultures can limp along. Centralised, bureaucratic ones implode.
This oil shock will reveal what kind of culture and economic model the non-US West has.
USSR had the second-longest economic boom ever recorded, going from one of the poorest economies on Earth in the 1930s to the second-largest by the late 1960s. Savings rate of ~65%, and a surprising enthusiasm for risk-taking and innovation.
Then the culture tipped into failure mode, and everything else followed. Free market economies with failing cultures can limp along. Centralised, bureaucratic ones implode.
This oil shock will reveal what kind of culture and economic model the non-US West has.
FreedomPatriot
boosted
Wow.
Americans say the Soviet Union was a huge success.
FreedomPatriot
boosted
@freepatriot
When pizza costs $20 per slice, it's really beefy jerky.
"Introduction to Zen Buddhism and Monastic Life" by George Larrick is the best book about Japan and Zen. It’s a quick read and impressively insightful. You should read this nonfiction book now. It makes you feel smart. Google it.
Wow.
Americans say the Soviet Union was a huge success.
FreedomPatriot
boosted
Tyranny isn't when pizza costs $20 a slice. Tyranny is when the government says that every slice of pizza must cost $20.
FreedomPatriot
boosted
@shortstories @freepatriot Trump wasted billions of US$BUX and a lot of American lives just to avoid the jew releasing his child-rape videos. No matter how you look at it, it's still treason.
Tyranny isn't when pizza costs $20 a slice. Tyranny is when the government says that every slice of pizza must cost $20.
There is no sanity in the USA anymore.
How can you deal with Americans when they look you in the eye and say that the US had TSA groping in 1776?
FreedomPatriot
boosted
One wonders if Snowden regrets throwing away his life to warn ungrateful Americans about unconstitutional NSA wire-tapping.
FreedomPatriot
boosted
Looks like he's a Russian citizen... but I'd guess he might be very leery traveling to many places outside Russia... CIA grudge.
FreedomPatriot
boosted
No good is going to come of this war... besides the countless deaths of innocents, it will probably result in economic disaster for much of the world, impoverishing billions.
The only positive is that current events, along with those of the past several years, has awakened a huge swath of humanity which now sees through the carefully-constructed facade and recognizes a certain group for what it really is.
FreedomPatriot
boosted
I guess you would have to see how his life is in Russia. It very well may be quite good. I don't know... I wonder how it is.
FreedomPatriot
boosted
@freepatriot asking you as non Americans, can actually people there rise up and stop the regime? I mean like hyuge demonstration or boycott.
One wonders if Snowden regrets throwing away his life to warn ungrateful Americans about unconstitutional NSA wire-tapping.
No good is going to come of this war... besides the countless deaths of innocents, it will probably result in economic disaster for much of the world, impoverishing billions.
The only positive is that current events, along with those of the past several years, has awakened a huge swath of humanity which now sees through the carefully-constructed facade and recognizes a certain group for what it really is.
