Having been born under the Soviet occupation and witnessing it for a few years before the the whole thing collapsed, it was the German mail order catalogs that made most people realise how bad we had. So the soviet union collapses, there's litterly nothing to buy, huge unemployment,etc. But some start going to western Europe (especially Germany) and suddenly you go from only seeing crappy russian made stuff to Japanese VHS players, proper audio systems, clothing that looks cool and comfy. I used to scroll those catalogs for hours thinking how the hell Germans have so much stuff+ trying to convert deuchmarks to our own currency just to realise that it would take my dad's entire salary just to buy some of of those things in the catalog. The beginning of 90s was crazy: we started having these black plastic carrier bags with celebrities printed on them- it was insanely popular thing to buy! I remember we had this guy in a wheelchair in our town - someone brought him a proper baseball hat from the US, people kept talking about it for weeks how he's the only one with this hat( some jackass took the hat from the poor guy a few weeks later). We were litterly decades behind. And then wild capitalism started. By the end of 90s, the country had more or less anything you could buy in western countries. Looking back,even though I was just a little kid back then,the progress we made in three decades is insane.
Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)
321–330 of 378 posts
Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)
#322Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
we have a big cultural problem. our current economy is great at optimizing for low cost mass produced items that last 6 months and then get thrown in the dump. a pair of shoes that lasts years isn't as profitable as a pair sold every 6 months. a coat or car that can be repaired is one less customer shopping for a new one. engineers design cars they don't have to work on or repair, and will never drive. in a healthy e…
What is this junk? I can't think of any I have bought or needed in many years?
Isn't the onus just as much on us as consumers?
Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)
#323Earlier 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?
Maybe it was harsh. However I think it makes the Chinese people look bad, where they aren't really to blame. The CCP keeps labor prices low, and we exploit it, and then we sit here and complain the stuff they make is junk.
The cost of labor has increased a lot in China and hundreds of millions have been lifted out of poverty. Perhaps other choices could do an even better job but certainly a far worse policies could be instituted.
Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)
#324Earlier quoted context omitted.
>"potatoes, corn, flour, butter, ... doritos" Making those your main source is highly unhealthy. It does not matter if it is called "Anglo-Irish". Greens, veggies, decent fruits, meat, fish - through the roof. In Loblaws in particular as I often shop in one. Vine tomatoes - $5 (used to pay $2). Fucking green onions - $2 for pathetic bunch (used to pay $0.5 for a bunch at least 3 times as big). Smaller box of mixed gr…
> Greens, veggies, decent fruits, meat, fish Potatoes are cheap because we have an industrial supply-chain for potatoes that developed and grew for a hundred years. This is linked to the whole "Anglo-Irish" thing. Potatoes are also cheaper to grow and store. Greens and fruits are super-perishable and require lots of packaging and protection. > Making those your main source is highly unhealthy. I hope nobody is eating…
>"It can be rice, millet, maize, wheat or potato. If you don't use one of these as your main source of calories -- yeah, your grocery bill is going to be expensive"
That is exactly my case. Also I am toll(ish) muscular guy and do about 2 hrs of cardio per day. My main diet is lots of meat / fish / chicken in combination with salad (greens, tomatoes, cukes and green onions), apples and berries. So yes it is expensive but I consider it better choice when one can afford it and for my lifestyle.
Yes I love fried potatoes and some other unhealthy stuff so I may sometimes go wild on weekend but if I switch to it as main caloric source (and I did so some times) I do not feel all too well.
Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)
#325Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is your point? I've heard that fast food places had become way more expensive. So yes average Jane/Joe would have nothing left after covering basic expenses. Myself I do not go to places like this at all. We either cook at home or on very rare occasions go to some restaurants where I can get some really good food.
I think that guy's point was that it isn't cheaper to eat junk than to eat "good and healthy" food. I think that this is big distinction between USA/Canada.
Junk is way cheaper than healthy food if you buy it in the stores vs going to fast food restaurants. But yes almost everything is less expensive in the US.
Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)
#326Earlier quoted context omitted.
Much of the really well made stuff that we buy here in the US also comes from China. They are now quite capable of very high end manufacturing as well.
I tell people this sometimes but the market is so saturated with the cheap junk that people don't often believe me.
I usually use iPhone or MacBooks as examples.
Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)
#327Earlier 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.
From '96 - Role of the USA in shortage of food and medicine in Cuba https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8942780/
> The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States has informed the US Government that such activities violate international law and has requested that the US take immediate steps to exempt food and medicine from the embargo.
Exempting Food and Agriculture Products from U.S. Economic Sanctions: Status and Implementation - https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL33499.html
> In approving the FY2001 agriculture appropriations act, Congress codified the lifting of unilateral sanctions on commercial sales of food, agricultural commodities, medicine, and medical products to Iran, Libya, North Korea, and Sudan, and extended this policy to apply to Cuba (Title IX of H.R. 5426, as enacted by P.L. 106-387; Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000, or TSRA). Other provisions place financing and licensing conditions on sales to these countries. Those that apply to Cuba, though, are permanent and more restrictive. TSRA also gives Congress the authority in the future to veto a President’s proposal to impose a sanction on the sale of agricultural or medical products.
Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)
#328Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lifting out of poverty is also defined in terms of "not starving to death because the winter was too long or cold", "not losing a half a years labor and food because a tornado hit your field", "not having to do manual labor 12 hours a day" and yes "access to material wealth" like indoor plumbing, labor saving devices like washing machines, and the ability to send your children to be educated instead of needing them a…
I would point out that under capitalism there have been famines even when there has been plenty of surplus food. A lack of famine either acute nor chronic is surely not a defining characteristic of capitalism.
This is pretty uniformly attributed to government policy, not "Capitalism". - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)
Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)
#329Earlier quoted context omitted.
Between 1922 and 1962, USSR's economy grew at an average of about 9% real per annum Growing from a bad start and where you can copy a more developed nation makes this easier. https://bearkunin.medium.com/soviet-union-facts-and-fictions...
>Growing from a bad start and where you can copy a more developed nation makes this easier. True. But you know what really makes economic growth easier? Foreign aid. Also trade. The USSR otoh had to deal with sanctions . https://www.americanforeignrelations.com/E-N/Embargoes-and-S...
Yet they weren't alone in the world. They were next to China and other friendlies.
Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)
#330Earlier quoted context omitted.
> constant tracking mandated by law I hate this. What is the year that this started?
YMMV (heh) depending on make and model, but as a rough guide, mid 2010s is when cellular modems and automotive telemetry started to become commonplace
The good news is that generation uses obsolete cellular modems that thanks to the 3G sunset can no longer connect to current networks.