Have you considered that in a discussion about the USA a modern Europe the Soviet Union might possibly be completely fucking irrelevant? But yeah, my bad, I keep being naive and assume that people try to interpret what I say in a reasonable manner instead of shouting COMMUNISM!! SOVIET UNION!!!

Which famously struggled because it didn't overpay its software engineers enough. So instead of doing productive work like optimizing ad impressions and creating DRM they all became garbage collectors and cleaners.

No, I'm not trying to engage in constructive debate right now. Apparently I lack whatever skill is needed to debate liberals without triggering their COMMIE!! reflex.