The article doesn’t even mention stuff like planned obsolescence or the fact that a lot of new goods end up being destroyed to artificially inflate prices.
The article doesn’t even mention stuff like planned obsolescence or the fact that a lot of new goods end up being destroyed to artificially inflate prices.
You do realize I live in modern Russia and I have [alive] relatives who lived in USSR, right?.. So it’s strange to read something like “once you learn a bit of history”. That’s the whole point I disagree with your initial statement about quality vs. quantity. Because I know some.
The whole point was to make stuff “good enough”. Not top-notch or something, just “good enough”. And it didn’t work all the time, of course. I mean even planes were crashing all the time (wiki).
Repairing culture is a good thing, don’t get me wrong. I like how they sent the schematics for the TV or a radio set you bought. I got this culture myself from my grandparents. Except for when you need to repair everything all the time: sanitary ware, electronics, automobiles, houses – everything. In a 3-room apartment, we had a huge closet full of repairing tools and small materials. And we weren’t nearly as close to handymen or something. The granddad was a lawyer (ex-military-prosecutor). The other granddad was a factory director (or something like that) – he had a room and a garage for those tools and materials.
Do you know what’s missing in the article, why people bought a single car at most? Well, one of the reasons is pretty simple: you could become an enemy of the state if you are too rich [publicly]. And I don’t say it’s good or bad. It’s just missing, yet it’s an important point.
You do realize I grew up in USSR personally and lived through the collapse. Just because you live somewhere doesn’t mean you’re historically literate either. Plenty of Americans don’t know shit about their own history either.
Do you know what’s missing in your comment the fact that USSR had excellent public transit, and thanks to actual planning you didn’t even need to use it a lot of the time. My neighborhood had everything you needed within walking distance. Schools, hospitals, stores, and parks were all within walking distance. And when you did need to go somewhere, public transit was excellent. You never even thought about it. You just go to a station and something will come within minutes.
How’s that has anything to do with “quality vs. quantity of goods”?
That was in reference to your claim about people buying at most one car. Cars were not a necessity there.
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My family moved around a lot after the collapse. I live in Canada nowadays. And I’ve seen what life in rural areas is like, it was hell of a lot better than this. Mortality among Russian men rising by 60% since 1991, four to five times higher than in Europe is also a bit of a giveaway that things worked better under communism.