Re:A Classic of Soviet Engineering - The Typhoon-class sub
by tome on Monday August 09, 2010 @02:37PM
(#1588902)
> The oppression and gulags were there too, I am not excusing them at all.
Then what are you saying? I'm finding it very hard to work out what your point is.
Re:A Classic of Soviet Engineering - The Typhoon-class sub
by tome on Monday August 09, 2010 @03:03PM
(#1588995)
OK, so I've reread your comments and what I think you're saying is:
"The coercion of the state (such as it was) did not play a significant role in the final quality of these engineering works."
Re:A Classic of Soviet Engineering - The Typhoon-class sub
by rdtsc on Monday August 09, 2010 @04:06PM
(#1589186)
Yes.
The point was that if food is cheap, and other stuff is provided, perhaps you don't have to pay your engineers $150K/year. If you can centralize all the education, housing and healthcare you can provide it cheaper for each person. Well of course , the system was broken and eventually fell appart.
But I was just highlighting that just because those particular engineers didn't make the equivalent dollar amount / year that US engineers made doesn't mean they had a proportionally lower standard of living, that is all.
Yes but there was more equality than it is now in the west among the richest and the poor. Healthcare, education (all, even higher!), and apartments were provided by the state. Think how much you make vs how much you spend for you house ($500K / 30 years?). What about about your healthcare over you lifetime $5M? Or college education $100K? If you didn't have those expenses, you might get by with just $15K/yearsin some parts of the US. Yes all those things were of the lowest quality but they were _there_. The oppression and gulags were there too, I am not excusing them at all.