View Single Post
  #20  
Old 06-16-2019, 03:50 PM
Formerly YB-2's Avatar
Formerly YB-2 Formerly YB-2 is offline
Retired

 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: NJ Shore
Posts: 8,404
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by PHC1 View Post
Glenn I’m not the right person to engage into that argument with. I was old enough to remember what the Soviet Union was like since I lived it. Your “understanding” of the system is different than mine. You watch tv and believe what they want you to believe but I know the reality, I lived it as did my parents and grandparents.

Soviet Union was a different time and Russia is a different place now. In fact Russia is closer to our system than Soviet Union ever was in social inequality since anyone is able to engage in entrepreneurial ventures and they do. Hence a Bentley or two or three on every street in Moscow. Obviously many get left behind just like here. Under Soviet Union there was no inequality, just a mediocre lifestyle no matter who one was by education or trade. “Equal” to your neighbor was the Communist way. It had a lot of negatives but at no point in time did the people leave culture behind even if the Soviet government left everything in ruins and disrepair.

Now you see culture blossoming in fact in every larger city in Russia. They are investing in infrastructure, parks, preserving nature, building magnificent recreational centers for the masses to enjoy.

I have to bite my tongue here so we don’t slip further but I’ll just leave it at this, when I was in Moscow and strolled through Gorky park, I saw rose gardens blooming, fountains beating to classical music and swans swimming in the park lake. There was a very neat beer stand in Gorky park and I was curious to see just how many Russian “drunks” would be in line. None, no one was buying beer much to my surprise.

Women were dressed neatly, children were laughing as they rode on kid trolleys that would take them around the park... People were happy and satisfied with their “new system” as far as I could tell. Moscow and other cities put up magnificent displays of Christmas trees lit up with lights for people to enjoy the holiday spirit and evil Mr.Putin addresses everyone with the warmest of holiday wishes on tv as he has been for decades....

As I stroll through Philadelphia parks I see homeless riffraff occupying the benches, drunk or stoned out of their minds, their stench permeating the air, overflowing garbage cans, trash on the grass and in the bushes. Now we have people sh!tting in the streets as witnessed in San Francisco and other cities. We have an opioid crisis, hypodermic needles littering some parts of the cities and I can go on and on.

As a US citizen and someone who has lived over 40 years in the USA I am very patriotic of my country but I simply cannot and will not agree with some of our priorities. The military-industrial complex is sucking our country dry and funneling the taxes into building war machines like no other country in the world, to the tune of 700 billion a year and then can’t account for trillions of dollars? Do I give a sh!t about the perpetual enemies, real and imagined that they have to conjure up yearly to justify the military expense as the greedy war oriented corporations grease the palms of our politicians while lining up their pockets and bombing everyone in sight?

I’d rather see peace and swans in our lakes as the fountains beat to the rhythm of classical music. We can’t even fix the potholes in the streets let alone pave the streets with granite, marble and other luxury materials so people can proudly walk the sidewalks like they do in Moscow today. People need and want culture, we as tax payers deserve it.
Serge - you're funny.
__________________
Glenn...
Clearaudio SM Pro Focal Bathys JLA 10" Dominion Kuzma Stabi S w/MC & MM Magnepan 1,7i McIntosh MA8950 Oppo 203 Roon Nucleus Rose Hifi RS150B Shunyata Gemini-4 Sony ST-A6B, TA-F6B & PS-X75 Sorane SA1.2 & TA-1L Stillpoints LP1v2 WW Pt, Au & Ag

Last edited by Formerly YB-2; 06-16-2019 at 03:53 PM.
Reply With Quote