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Vacations in the Soviet Union

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Re: Vacations in the Soviet Union

#211

Post by wing-_-nuts »

yamtaddle wrote: post #147
ahelwer wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm happy you've boiled your recharging needs down to a science but none of this compares with long contiguous periods of unstructured time you can choose to use as you wish. Three months off every decade? Really?

Nb the described plan is luxurious by US standards.

I have ~ 15y of experience and I have a grand total of 3 weeks PTO. My father, at my age had 5 whole weeks and doesn't understand why I don't take big trips more. Despite the trend in 'unlimited vacation', I feel it's only getting worse.

Re: Vacations in the Soviet Union

#212

Post by byw »

cameldrv wrote: post #163
Arrath wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad had a, to teenage me, embarrassing habit of asking less-than-full tables at busy restaurants (mostly tables that looked like they'd just been seated, only drinks or maybe appetizers) if they would like some company and conversation. It got us an invitation surprisingly often, skipping a long wait or a walk to another restaurant, and made for some interesting table talk at the same time.

This is something that is somewhat common in Frankfurt, Germany. I got to meet some interesting people this way when I visited a couple of times.

Happened to us in Berlin on my visit. We were seated with two elderly ladies. Their English wasn't great but they were very friendly.

Re: Vacations in the Soviet Union

#213

Post by fifilura »

FooBarWidget wrote: post #169
kortilla wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dystopia is right in your face. VPNs don’t work well and with them turned off there is a ton of stuff you can’t access.

You may be surprised to find out that outside of HN, not many people use Internet freedom as a prime measurement of dystopia. As a techie I am personally also very annoyed at the lack of Internet freedom. But as a Chinese I also recognize that there are many more aspects in life and society that are more important than Internet freedom, and that China scores pretty high at (especially in historic context).

...said the Russians. Until they got drafted into an illegal war...

Re: Vacations in the Soviet Union

#214

Post by dionidium »

boveus wrote: post #79

>It encouraged workers to vacation with groups of relative strangers as opposed to their friends and families. This can actually work out well. I experienced something similar in the US while on vacation. I was traveling with someone from Glenwood Springs, CO to Denver, CO via Amtrak. We went to the dining car for lunch an since there were two of us and space is at a premium, the Amtrak policy was to seat us with one…

Lots of things that are fine rapidly become not-fine when mandated by the state.

Re: Vacations in the Soviet Union

#215

Post by wing-_-nuts »

t-3 wrote: post #191
martythemaniak wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As always, the gap between reality and propaganda is hilarious. Soviet workers and their colonized subjects spent their leisure time filling in for the massive failures of the state to provide anything resembling their promises. Some excerpts from my childhood: * Family outing to the fields to harvest carrots to pickle for the winter. This would be bartered with other families who went to harvest other veggies, so th…

Not exactly different from my parents experiences growing up in the US, where "summer vacation" was a trip to uncle's farm to detassel corn or pick cotton, hunting to get meat, etc.

Yep, all of my vacations growing up were either hunting or fishing trips. While getting out in nature is nice, when you take your kids out on a boat for 10h / day because you haven't caught enough fish it very quickly stops feeling like a vacation and more like work.

Re: Vacations in the Soviet Union

#216

Post by khazhoux »

bobthepanda wrote: post #171
ActorNightly wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very good idea for teenagers and younger adults to break them out of the online world. For working class though, its probably best not to force people to socialize. The thing that doesn't get talked enough about in socialization is that its not all positive, and people have different tolerance to each others bullshit.

in ye olden days you used to solve that with an understood social standard of 'polite' topics. i would like to say, that this is at least somewhat observable today at places like work; but also, society has changed a lot.

Still common in many countries (where you never discuss religion or politics unless it’s after 2am and you’re all drunk).

Personally, I dislike the “bring your whole self to work” thing that companies like google encourage (used to?), where people talk about extremely polarizing topics on the company chat groups.

Re: Vacations in the Soviet Union

#217

Post by cosmodisk »

I'll add to the list: The closes my dad ever was to 'travelling abroad' during the soviet occupation was when they filled up a bus and went to Yugoslavia. He knew everyone on the bus except a couple of guys who showed up last minute and sat in the front row of the bus all the time. It was quite of a journey for him at the time, because he mentioned it at least hundred times when we were growing up.

Re: Vacations in the Soviet Union

#218

Post by bequanna »

medvezhenok wrote: post #202
bequanna wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One explanation I've found pretty accurate: When the young start to become educated (late teens, early 20's) they face the realization that they will be entering the world on the bottom of the economic totem pole. There are two primary responses to this: 1. Realize that the real world is competitive and difficult and much self-improvement and hard work will be needed to thrive. These people put their heads down and g…

Sort of. I think it's more nuanced than that. Communism rebalances the relative worth of people in society. I.e. my grandfather, an engineer, earned less than a factory worker. An average or passing artist could earn a decent living in the Soviet Union, compared to having scraps today (in relative terms). I notice this calculus as I have an artistic career and a software career. I would like to pursue the artistic ca…

> not because the work is actually worth less in some sense.

It depends on how you define value. If you mean value in terms of how much money you receive, you actually need other people to agree that what you're doing is worthwhile.

If you only care about the feelings that YOU get from doing the work (which is totally OK) your work is still valuable, but don't expect others to provide you value in the form of money when you provided them nothing.

In other words, I'm cool with you being an artist. But you can't force me to pay you for your art if I don't want it.

Re: Vacations in the Soviet Union

#219

Post by gdy »

jtbayly wrote: post #190
boveus wrote: post #79

>It encouraged workers to vacation with groups of relative strangers as opposed to their friends and families. This can actually work out well. I experienced something similar in the US while on vacation. I was traveling with someone from Glenwood Springs, CO to Denver, CO via Amtrak. We went to the dining car for lunch an since there were two of us and space is at a premium, the Amtrak policy was to seat us with one…

Haga has a flagged comment pointing out the purpose of this policy, and I can't figure out why it is flagged, so I'll just quote what the article says: "It encouraged workers to vacation with groups of relative strangers as opposed to their friends and families. They were all part of a collective and that umbrella united them. In the Soviet Union, after all, the collective—not the family—was the most important social…

That's just sovietophobic fiction.

I remember the slogan "Family is the unit of society" and childless people had to pay a special tax. Also infidelity in marriage was frowned upon and could negatively affect the career.

Re: Vacations in the Soviet Union

#220

Post by dionidium »

snickerbockers wrote: post #6

>It encouraged workers to vacation with groups of relative strangers as opposed to their friends and families. maybe it's just because I don't have much of a social circle, but this seems appealing to me.

Whether any given individual thinks that sounds appealing is more or less irrelevant. What's salient is that it was state mandated.
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