>>Surely you're not suggesting that communism/socialism is better.
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>Could have been better had it been done right. But even in the best of such systems (the one I lived in :), there was too much distance between what was promised and proclaimed and what was really going on. And that was the one system which actually had free enterprise - but not private ownership over the means of production, which meant the workers managed the company, shared the profits, but couldn't sell their shares because these were "society owned". It looked fine on paper (except this ownership thing), and it worked fine in most cases, but it was never given a real chance. It was always under the rule of The Party.

One ruling party controling everything with no accountability is always bad news, and in my oppinion, the worst system to have. Not to mention, it always seems to be lead by the most brutal individual. The ruling party get everything, the rest of the population get nothing but misery and hunger.


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>Capitalism would also be fine, if it delivered what it promised: equal chance for everyone, and best living for most of the people. However, whatever was accomplished in that area during the last seventy years seems to be reversing now - the rich are getting richer, the poor poorer, and the middle vanishing.

It delievers more then anything else. You don't have to stay poor if you work hard.

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>>>As for the 35 mil, it was upped to 350 once it became obvious that it's miserably low compared to what Spain or Britain have given.

Still pretty good for a country that don't tax their people to death.

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>>If people really want democracy, freedom and free enterprise system, they should be willing to fight for it. The people in the former Soviet empire, they're the ones that have to do it. If they really want it they will, if not, they and their grand childern will face another Stalin and Brezhnev.
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>Do you really believe the people knew what they wanted? They only knew what they didn't. Specially in Russia - the number of people who knew two bits about how capitalism works was probably below one in a thousand. So when Gorbachov started dismantling the USSR (under the guise of fixing it), they had no choice but to take the propaganda for granted, hook, line and sinker.

Well I know that more people wanted to defect to the US, the the other way around. The only time an American wanted live in another country is to escape from prosecution.