Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)

beelineblogger.blogspot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 378 posts

Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)

#291

Post by licebmi__at__ »

kortilla wrote: post #276
birdymcbird wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

-> “Cuban rulers would rather its citizens starve than implement democracy.” cuban here. please dont pretend america care about democracy. america have interests. when they need new regime they suppress democracy as needed or push for democracy. main idea to get some regime subservient to american economic interest. why america has so many migrants at border but america do nothing or even talk about what crisis happe…

This is all smokescreen. Cuba is perfectly capable of trading with Canada and it does. The citizens are still destitute due to government corruption.

This is true, but with a catch. Other companies and individuals in other countries can trade with Cuba... provided they can keep their operation separate with the operation that interacts with us customers/companies. And even if they manage to do so, they still are at risk to be flagged or to cause their costumers to be flagged as non compliant by the us banking systems. So to burden this risk to trade with a small and poor island might not be as attractive even to people not directly subject to the US embargo.

Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)

#292

Post by licebmi__at__ »

Jensson wrote: post #262
birdymcbird wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

-> “Cuban rulers would rather its citizens starve than implement democracy.” cuban here. please dont pretend america care about democracy. america have interests. when they need new regime they suppress democracy as needed or push for democracy. main idea to get some regime subservient to american economic interest. why america has so many migrants at border but america do nothing or even talk about what crisis happe…

I'm from Sweden, not USA. I think there are many problems with USA, but it isn't capitalism at least, I'd say the major problem is that their democracy doesn't properly represent the will of the people. Sweden isn't perfect, but I don't see many countries that does a better job, and Sweden is very capitalist, we voted about going towards communist but people didn't want to. Instead we have a strong capitalism, but wi…

>strong capitalism, but with relatively high taxes and high government benefits

So, communism, at least according to US conservative perspective.

Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)

#293

Post by timeon »

WoodenChair wrote: post #237

For those of you who don't have family who escaped from Cold War era Eastern European communism, you should have the added context that this is actually a pretty commonly shared experience—and even something of a trope. My mom and grandparents upon going to a Canadian supermarket for the first time after escaping from communist Czechoslovakia in the late 1960s couldn't believe it. They were used to stores that only s…

I grew up in 80s Czechoslovakia. I do not remember empty shelves like those in the article but other then that yes. Oranges on Christmas. Fewer things in general - shops were smaller.

You had to stand in line for several days if you wanted to buy a car (Škoda). You had no idea what color it would be once it was your turn. Most groceries we had was homemade especially meat and vegetables. You could buy some stuff from west but from specific shop [0]. You had to have special currency for this that could be obtained on black market.

People are now used to have anything on demand. But they are also used to shitty things like tasteless tomatoes (in case of supermarkets not only during winter).

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuzex

Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)

#294

Post by [deleted] »

akhilpotla wrote: post #141
ubermonkey wrote: post #9

I dunno about Yeltsin and the Houston store, but I do know this: I went on a student tour of the USSR as a college student in 1991, arranged through my University (U of Alabama). I was getting a minor in Russian language, and it seemed like a fun trip. It actually got MORE fun because in the run-up to the trip (in spring, 91) there was some dissent in the USSR and many parents wouldn't let their kids go. In order to…

My dad moved to the US in 99 (he grew up in a town of about 50k people at the time). He said he was shocked people would stop for him when crossing the street, and he was amazed he could by a 1/2 gallon of ice cream for a couple bucks. Previously, he might have had ice cream once a year. He was also impressed and made happy by the abundance of meat and milk. Funnily he was quite disappointed at the fruit situation co…

[deleted]

Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)

#295

Post by eddy_chan »

I'm from Australia and I was blown away by a run of the mill H-E-B supermarket in 2022. The size, scale, selection was quadruple what I'm used to at home. A co-founder took me to when I visited him in Fort Worth and I joked that I felt like Yeltsin visiting.

Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)

#296

Post by jvnnmfjvfjvflkj »

licebmi__at__ wrote: post #292
Jensson wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm from Sweden, not USA. I think there are many problems with USA, but it isn't capitalism at least, I'd say the major problem is that their democracy doesn't properly represent the will of the people. Sweden isn't perfect, but I don't see many countries that does a better job, and Sweden is very capitalist, we voted about going towards communist but people didn't want to. Instead we have a strong capitalism, but wi…

>strong capitalism, but with relatively high taxes and high government benefits So, communism, at least according to US conservative perspective.

[flagged]

Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)

#297

Post by gotorazor »

FpUser wrote: post #286
valleyer wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a bit harsh to call them xenophobic, but I did have a similar thought recently. What's worse, manufacturing cheap junk for pay, or filling your home with cheap junk?

>"What's worse, manufacturing cheap junk for pay, or filling your home with cheap junk?" Thanks to modern economy in Canada for example people with median and below income currently can't afford to buy anything but junk. Same goes for quality food. Price of accommodation, food and many other things have skyrocketed. This is what is "worse"

Just did a trip to Loblaws in Toronto yesterday. I disagree. Organic groceries -- sure -- median income people can't really afford it.

The traditional, raw items common to the Anglo-Irish diet like potatoes, corn, flour, butter, cabbage, etc are super cheap in Canada. Meat pricing has been super challenging since the pandemic started.

Canada don't really have the same kind of agricultural subsidies that the United States has. Buying a bag of doritos isn't cheaper than a bag of potatoes. Nor, a big mac cheaper than raw ground beef.

Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)

#298

Post by timeon »

nivenkos wrote: post #275
ozim wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You did not have to go as far as USA to see that. Trip to western Berlin would be enough. Countries that got under USA sphere of influence had it much better. They got lots of money with Marshall's plan to rebuild economies after war. So even if they would knew there is a better life it was all decided at Jalta and they were most likely not able to do anything about it without straight out starting new war against So…

Except those in the "USA sphere" that had pro-US dictators forced upon them - like Chile, Argentina, Guatemala, Indonesia, etc. - even Spain, Portugal, South Korea, Taiwan and Brazil suffered greatly under US-supported (to varying degrees) dictatorships.

He was mentioning west Berlin but yeah some had pro-US dictators some had pro-USSR dictators.

Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)

#299

Post by jvnnmfjvfjvflkj »

pavlov wrote: post #207
danielodievich wrote: post #198

Few years into our emigration to USA, my family brought my grandfather over to USA. He was a blue collar worker, electrician at the cement factory, entering that profession right after the war, which he spent under the occupation and mostly I think as a shepherd for cows and pigs in what is now Belarus. He has built several houses in his life and was always incredibly handy with tools. We took him to Home Depot. He l…

Now the challenge for us is that we’re still stuck thinking stores full of Chinese junk is the pinnacle of civilization and we’re unable to know any better despite accumulating evidence of planetary destruction.

[flagged]

Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)

#300

Post by jvnnmfjvfjvflkj »

robswc wrote: post #121

I have some extended family from Eastern European countries. It's just so unfortunate what happened. The road to hell, paved with good intentions. They're normal people stuck picking up the pieces of a failed regime. Even with some things being adjusted, it might take weeks to comfortably afford what a typical SDE could afford in an hour here. No idea how people in the west romanticize it or say it was a good thing.…

They say this about Cubans in Miami too.
Post reply on HN