Thanks for the laugh guys!
It took me quite a while to acknowledge that some of you seriously thought I was defending communism (Soviet or other) in some way. I wasn't. I was pointing out what seemed to me a contradiction between proclaimed economic systems and the realities on the streets.
Global, I haven't been to Russia in my 22 years except for one short time. But I have many relatives who lived there and worked there. And who still are there. I'm not going to disclose the financial situation of my family at that time or of the relatives now, but suffice it to say that when it came to Soviet territory, it all depended on 1) where you lived and 2) who you know.
If were to go to Baku in Azerbaijan in Soviet times, you wouldn't find people stranded on a line waiting to buy toilet paper. There was almost no such thing as a "deficit" there. But then again, there was no real "communism" over there either. The "black markets" you talk about being so expensive, well, if you're the average blue-collar worker in capitalist America, can you afford more than basic necessities without going into debt? I don't think so. Hell, there's no fucking need for "expensive" black markets in America. With half of the average salary of an American going to pay his fucking rent, especially in NYC, there's little luxury that an average American can afford other than basic necessities and public goods, let alone black market goods.
If you make 6 figures, you have no fucking idea what life is like for over 50% of people in "capitalist" America, who work their whole fucking life day in and day out so they can pay their fucking rent and once in a lifetime get their face on the fucking local TV news camera to say how proud they are of their shitty "diverse" neighborhood.
Back there, people didn't have to pay rent, or pay for housing, other than go to work everyday and be a "good people's citizen" of the SU. Medical care was free. The fucking doctors weren't looking for ways to infect or injure you so that they could swipe your insurance card a few more times. But if you think Soviet society was a classless society, I've got oceanfront property in Moscow to sell you.
Hey, I'm not bashing America or capitalism, or praising communism. The problem is when others bash the Soviet "communism", as if in America things are any different. As Niko Bellic learned in GTA IV, things in America are actually not so different.
Corruption? What do you call a situation where an off-duty cop on a power trip stops in the middle of the traffic in an unmarked car for no fucking reason, gets into a verbal fight with the car behind him that almost bumped his ass, pulls a gun out, then gets the person sued and imprisoned for "attempted assault" with tools that weren't even in the trunk, with the best evidence being the aggressive look that the defendant has on their face in court? Definitely deserving of a felony conviction. That good ol' American law must be working out quite well for ya.