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Alinestra Covelia
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I sense the dodgy presence of Bing - a presence I've not felt since...
Feb 2000
time: 00:29
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I lived in Beijing the year it finally dismantled the Communist system. It was really dull and grey for the first three years, 1987-1990. I went to school at embassy schools because no others existed for foreigners. Back then, China had two currencies: the RMB local currency, and the FEC (Foreign Exchange Currency). The FEC has gone now.
Beijing back then had maybe four 'skyscrapers', and they were the Holiday Inn Lido Hotel apartments. Now, 15 years later, they're all over the place.
One of my distant relatives (and by distant, we mean across four or five marriages) was once a Vice Premier in the Communist Party. I went to his home once in 1989 - he had a ratty old black and white television, beat up old sofas, and I found a mousetrap with decayed cheese behind a cupboard. My parents gave him a gift of US-made baby clothes for his great-grandson to wear, and he was very pleased to have such high quality clothes, even second hand. Contrast that with 15 years on, when most of the emerging middle class in the cities have faxes, pagers, cell phones, and internet connections.
(Then again, to be fair to the above representation of the government members, they did have a stipulation to live in comparatively modest conditions, even for top leaders. I doubt that this holds today.)
Fewer bikes are on the streets, more motorcycles and cars (I'm not too happy about this, mind). People have sidestepped the land-line telephone stage entirely and have leapt into the cell phone stage.
The Communist party has started to move all the factories to the outskirts in preparation for the 2008 games. They also imposed a series of laws aimed at improving the air quality ahead of the Olympics. I hope it continues afterwards.
Food is very cheap, though I've been told that this is due to government checks to keep it cheap. Alcohol is available in profusion and most people drink it responsibly (a considerable change from British society, where getting irresponsibly and disruptively drunk is seen in surprisingly many circles as highly admirable).
Construction goes on at breakneck pace, owing in part to the draconian right of land ownership that the government has. Foreigners are generally welcomed by Beijing people, though I've seen Japanese friends have problems with cab drivers. (Scars of the Sino-Japanese war still run deep.)
Generally I think the transition away from planned economics and strict police state political control has resulted in many good changes. However, many people have pointed out the emergence of less healthy aspects of capitalism. Even in Beijing, now, prostitution has returned, after decades of Maoism practically wiped it out. Many people have been laid off from work after state-run factories were forced to shut down. People in the press celebrate their increasing press freedoms (as long as they don't report against the government) at the same time as they lament the withdrawing of state funding. With the same freedom to go out and make your millions free of government control, also comes the freedom to go out and blow it all, lose it all, or get robbed of it all.
Abuse of power is still a problem, but it has risen to new levels of sophistication. Nowadays, instead of accusations of brutal beatings and fierce repression, the Communist party has to deal with accusations of lost funds and siphoned resources.
The opportunities for making money there are phenomenal for people with the right vision. When I'm done with my education here in the USA, I will definitely be heading back to China for work. For people who have the acumen to pull a Western wage, Chinese costs of living are very comfortable indeed.
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Sir Og
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Lurking in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria
Jun 2001
time: 07:29
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Which country did you live in?
Bulgaria
In what time period? And what period of your life?
I’ve lived here all my life. I was 13 in 1989.
Do you look back with good or bad memories?
Mostly good memories. But as most of you have already mentioned this is mainly due to the fact that we were kids. Everybody was equally not wealthy and they all could afford to go to a sea resort in the summer and to a winter resort in the winter. I remember being extremely bored by "Pioneers" meetings and wondering what's the point in being a "Pioneer" and why we should all be "Pioneers" and why is it a bad thing if you are expelled from the Pioneers organization.
I have traveled abroad twice during communism. The first time it was to England, Sheffield and I liked it a lot. It was so different from Bulgaria. The second time I went to the USSR , Minsk and liked Bulgaria better than Belorussia.
What was best thing about communism in your area?
What was the worst?
The best thing was probably the sense of security. Everybody knew that they would have free education and healthcare, that they would be given a place to live and that they would get a job as soon as they graduate and that job would be enough to provide for them and their families.
Another very good thing about communism was that there was a lot less crime back then. And criminals were punished when they were caught.
The sense of security was also one of the worst things because people knew that they would have those things even if they didn't work hard enough. That's one of the main reasons for communism falling apart.
Would you prefer to live in such a system now?
No. Because Bulgarian planed economy was pathetic.
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Sir Ralph
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Long live teh Schwampel!
Dec 2001
time: 06:29
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If I define live in a country as being there as adult and for more than a year, I lived in East Germany and the Soviet Union. I've been for weeks or months in some others, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary come to my mind.
As for experience: If you did not actively fight against the system, you could live a halfway acceptable life, not as good as in capitalist countries, of course, but far from poverty and third world level. Your opinion was welcome, as long as it matched the opinion of the rulers. That hasn't changed much eversince, but I give the capitalist system credit for not arresting its dissidents, but just ignoring them. Propaganda was omnipresent, very strong and annoying. We called it the "red rubber hammer". Working was a must (not financially, but morally), even though lots of jobs didn't make any sense. The communist party was everywhere, in every village, in every factory and in every agricultural cooperative. This had good and bad sides. The bad side is obvious, the good side was, if you wanted to get something, or have something repaired in your factory etc. (resources were scarce) and the management of the factory denied it, you had a second shot through the "party connection", given you knew somebody who was in.
Simple things like food, clothing and living were dirt cheap (because highly subsided) and not scarce. Other things (good electronics, cars, computers) were considered to be luxury goods and had either a bad quality (own production), were expensive (western imports), you had to wait very long (cars), you needed western money (DM or $, for instance building materials or services) or were simply unaccessible. Despite the fact, that salaries weren't high (subsidies cost a lot), most people had a lot of money saved, because there was nothing good to buy.
Although life was a lot better than the western propaganda said (heck, who had western relatives, often got packages even with food and coffee, although we had enough of that), it was still poor compared to now, and nobody I know wishes the old system back.
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Sir Og
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Lurking in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria
Jun 2001
time: 07:29
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Yugoslavia had a more open economy than the other communist states.
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Sir Og
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Lurking in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria
Jun 2001
time: 07:29
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In Bulgaria there was practicaly no private sector but it was different in Yugoslavia. A lot of Bulgarians used to go to Yugo to buy clothes, houshold goods, etc.
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Sir Ralph
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Long live teh Schwampel!
Dec 2001
time: 06:29
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Many eastern european countries had at least a rudimentary private sector. In Poland I know, a big part of the agriculture was in private hands. In East Germany, there was a large private sector until 1972, when most of the private factories were nationalized and their owners paid out, which didn't mean much, because there was nothing to buy. But even after this, a big part of handcraft and service, like bakers, butchers, TV and car repair etc. remained in private hands, usually as family enterprises. These people lived fairly good, even though they sounded off louder than others. After the wall fell, they faced more competition, and many of them got bankrupt or live on the verge of bankruptcy.
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Sir Og
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Lurking in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria
Jun 2001
time: 07:29
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Bulgaria was probably the worst case in terms of size of the private sector. Virtualy all buisnesses were owned by the government. Some small private enterprises started appearing in the late 1980's after "perestroika".
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VetLegion
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quote:
Originally posted by Sir Og
Yugoslavia had a more open economy than the other communist states. |
This is true. There have been phases in Yugoslavian economy and I am not an expert on it, but it was better off then most other countries because of couple of reasons:
- Competition. Most companies in Y. weren't state owned, they were worker owned and were allowed to compete against each other. Their sucess was to a degree decided by the market, though not completely as state would artificially keep even the unprofitable companies alive. But still, some companies were quite sophisticated and able to compete in western markets too.
- Grey market economy was pretty large. Because most companies had too many workers quite some were seriously underworked and used their time and sometimes company resources or tools to improve their finances on the side.
- Workers abroad. A large number of people worked in west germany or other parts of Europe and they sent a lot of money back home.
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15-07-2003 22:27
and it's connor
guess they' shouldn't have built so many tanks. 
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