Hey hey hey we’re about to enter a golden age of state funded productions of Cats with as many of the original cast as are still alive and not jailed for refusing to join the revival
Because in the soviet union you were either locked into communal housing that locked you into a caste or you were arrested and imprisoned for "vagrancy". Neither system is perfect, but let's not hold hukou up as aspirational. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1174118
I’m not going to pretend the Soviet system served everyone well, but the current system of homeless encampment grows, gets bulldozed destroying all their personal belongings, relocating them like they are fucking bears, then back to homeless encampments still seems way worse.
Phenomenal ice cream, rail transit, and sure, ballet. Gonna say the literature and underground arts scene was in spite of the regime, even though essentially funded by bullshit jobs. Everything else was pretty crap. Quality of life not good. Gender stuff double plus ungood.
Or just jailing them for vagrancy. My county has one homeless “shelter” and it’s not even tier 1. We have a massive housing shortage, and rent for a place where average local wages are probably sub $40k is around $1800 at best.
At least the Soviets had a social safety net. The Putin-era Russia is the template, all of the repression and corruption of the USSR joined with all of the worst impulses of unrestricted capitalism.
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Phenomenal ice cream, rail transit, and sure, ballet. Gonna say the literature and underground arts scene was in spite of the regime, even though essentially funded by bullshit jobs. Everything else was pretty crap. Quality of life not good. Gender stuff double plus ungood.