"What happened"? A major humanitarian disaster, or how some people call it "a capitalism".
.
For real, when people say "the URSS turned into a hellhole because of the collapse of communism" they are basically right, but what they mean is "communism caused that disaster", which is exactly false for fuck sake.
Why did the Soviet Union collapse?
I don't mean that in a leading way, it's just a question I like to ask because I genuinely don't grok what happened.
Very difficult question there, something that most historians are still arguing about. People like to blame Gorbachev for everything but he took over a sinking ship at that point (and then fucked up his reforms, he should be blamed for that). Simple answer is that they got economically and militarily outcompeted by the the capitalist west, which lead to internal conflict that suddenly caused the whole government structure to collapse. The complicated answer is why that happened.
There are a lot of reasons people give: revisionism, corruption, too much repression, poor economic planning... it's a whole field of study. Truthfully it's a combination of those sorts of things that lead to collapse, I don't think you can point to one thing or one decision and say things would have been different if it was changed (except the Secret Speech by idiot Khrushchev)
Personally I like to blame computers. The USSR just missed the computerization revolution in the 70s and early 80s, which really could have reinvigorated their economy. They were still focused on massive public works style projects to create growth which was... well there's a reason capitalists don't do them anymore, no money in it. The Soviets also suppressed some scientists and engineers that probably would have been useful for computer development.
Hope that makes sense. Also hope you see that much like the "Fall of Rome" it is a complicated question with a lot elements to it. All power to the Soviets!
... In 2005 the average American was consuming 4000 calories per day?
That's insane. And that's the average - there must be a ton of people above that. And note that Western Europe isn't that much better - I live there and where are these people ? it's a heavy day for me when I eat more than 2500 kcal.
I mean thinking about how many overweight and obese Americans I see in a day, that doesn't actually surprise me all that much. No shit as I was typing this a 250-300+lbs man just walked past my window. And I see people that size regularly.
This says "supply", which could just mean total produced per person, not necessarily consumed.
i.e., waste could be (and is) very high.
The USSR was a better place to to live in than the United States, especially if you weren't white, probably until things started falling off the rails around the time of Andropov-Chernenko. I will fight anyone who disparages the Achievements of October and the glorious sacrifice of the Soviet people it took to defeat the fascist marauders in the Great Patriotic War. Death to the capitalists, death to Amerikkka, all power to the Soviets! :stalin-shining:
“Ackchyually the commies lied about how much food they had, because they weren’t a transparent democracy like the USA”
