Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would take that even a step further... The entire consumerist culture is under threat (at least in this hemisphere). Think of how excited you are when you get any new toy (car, brand new jacket, tv, shoes..) and all the euphoria and emotional investment involved in the point and time of purchase. Then you take it home, play with it for a little while and while you realize that this "thing" doesn't completely and fu…
+1 you as it is true, yet only half of it. This consumerist culture fueled technology development so it become possible for the millions of people also to get excited by, for example, seeing Hubble photos and discussing the screwdup of CERN/Gran Sasso scientists across the world - the details of SR and GR application in this case became normal topic of discussion in wide audiences. >Apple is like the Vatican of consu…
Up until the 1980s when the western countries imposed strict trading restrictions with Yugoslavia (despite our friendly stance towards both the West and the East) my country was an economic power in the region. Wikipedia informs me that our annual GDP growth averaged 6.1 percent, health care was free, literacy was 91 percent, and life expectancy was 72 years.
We were simply broken as a casualty of the US effort to overthrow various communist governments in Eastern Europe. It was by no means an organic/natural effect of our socialism being dysfunctional.