Unemployed? What would life be like for 99ers back in the USSR?

[Steeplerot]

Living in the USA it is hard sometimes to imagine anything besides a capitalist system where bad news like unemployment can mean bankruptcy of all you toiled for your life or even worse homelessness/starvation of your family.


How did this work in other completely unrelated systems to the USA?

This is no cheering on another way, but it is a interesting question!

Hi comrades!

Was it at all possible to quit your job in the USSR if you didn't like it?

And also, was it possible that you could get fired from your job? And if so, what happened then? Was there some form of severance pay, would the state find you another job...?



And low and behold, we got a real answer!

Well, as you might know, by law every citizen was entitled to a job. By the same token, every citizen who was employable, apart from women with young children, theoretically had to hold a job or else face prosecution as a 'parasite'. Practically of course, there were exceptions. For example, some women stayed out of the workforce and remained housekeepers, without consequences.

You could quit your job if you didn't like it, but would be legally instructed to look for work after being idle without good cause after four consecutive months. Once you had been instructed, you would have a month to find a position, and after that would be liable to arrest if you did not.

A relatively comfortable existence was possible for those living with permissive spouses or parents -because living expenses were already cheap and most basic goods were heavily subsidized.

So in direct answer to your question: Yes you could of course quit your job if you didn't like it. Because of the guarantee of a job, many workplaces had difficulty retaining their workers, and turnover was high in a lot of places. Some workplace managers dealt with this by installing a lot of conveniences -such as day care, hair salons, spas, amateur theatre companies, special stores with hard to find goods, etc. to try to keep their workers happy and wanting to stay with the company. Unfortunately workplaces of this kind were still relatively rare when the country began collapsing.

If you were fired, you would have to find another job based on the regulations above. I have no information about severance pay.


What do you guys think of this? Very interesting concept, making employers compete for the workers labor instead of capitalists competing to pay workers the least.
Unpossible!

 

[PeshakJang]

How'd that work out for them?

 

[Steeplerot]

How'd that work out for them?

Dunno, hows that capitalist rat-race to the bottom working out for us workers here?

I will not "defend" the craphole of the soviet government but it is fun to learn about different ideas!

 

[Matt1970]

Don't start. It wasn't less than 20 years ago you had to wait days in a line to get a loaf of bread. Russia abandoned a strict Communist regime for a more Democratic Capitalists system. Plain and simple Communism failed.

 

[lord_emperor]

Outside of the corrupt government, no freedom of speech, compulsory military service and ****ing cold winters that doesn't sound so bad.

None of those things are necessarily required to go hand-in-hand with guaranteed work, but they always seem to for some reason.

 

[PeshakJang]

Dunno, hows that capitalist rat-race to the bottom working out for us workers here?

Living in the most advanced, most prosperous society ever seen in the history of man? Oh, it's working out just fine.

 

[Steeplerot]

Don't start. It wasn't less than 20 years ago you had to wait days in a line to get a loaf of bread.

In the 80s they had shortage problems, but it was nothing like long breadlines crap people said, most of those images are from the war era.

The 70s up until the 1980s "capitalist reform era" gave the workers a pretty decent standard of living compared to USA actually. It's the late 80s when you start seeing worker confidence go to shit and the lines start back up.

 

[Steeplerot]

no freedom of speech

Here is the interesting part of this: Another Comrade who is from (eastern Germany) DDR was asked about this also:


What do you miss most about living in the "Evil Empire":


1. Freedom of speech. This may sound strange, but as one of them put it, "In the East, you were forbidden to rant about the state, but you were free to say whatever you wanted about your boss. Now the reverse is true." Upon my persistent asking, he explained that, as long as you didn't say stuff like "socialism sucks", you could criticize everything you wanted, and according to him, the right to step up to your boss and shout into his face when he treats you unfairly was worth much more than the freedom of speech that we have in capitalist states.

2. Solidarity. Even though Marxist education didn't work too well on people, there was still some kind of class consciousness. You would see a stranger and know that he's your comrade, your fellow proletarian, and therefore there would be solidarity between you. It was no problem to ask anybody for a favor, and people were, generally, much friendlier with each other.

3. The welfare state. Housing and food were ridiculously cheap. An apartment cost about 50 marks a month back then. This makes 12,5 Western marks, which in turn makes 6,25 euros, which in turn makes about five dollars. FIVE DOLLARS. Every student in grade 11 or higher got 110 marks per month. Just as a reward for being so ambitious. Now if a month's rent was less than half of that, you can imagine just how much 110 marks were for a teenager. And apparently there were lots of financial benefits like this one.

4. The right to work. I guess this is an obvious one. If you were looking for work, you'd always find a job on a construction site or similar.

5. Security. Due to all the above benefits, people in the GDR always had a strong sense of security. They were absolutely certain that life would always be okay, even without bananas and coffee, because they just couldn't imagine that there were things like begging or being homeless. Sadly, this is also why they wanted capitalism so bad in the end. They'd never experienced just how bad life can be.

 

[Matt1970]

I don't see you living in Russia. If it's so great there, pack a bag. Or do you continue saying how things are better everywhere but the USA and continue to live under it's benifits?

 

[Steeplerot]

I don't see you living in Russia. If it's so great there, pack a bag. Or do you continue saying how things are better everywhere but the USA and continue to live under it's benifits?

Not my fault that thinking offends your PC view of capitalism. I suspect you would be more comfortable in a totalitarian capitalist regime where noone can question your views? Haul ass then!

 

[Matt1970]

Not my fault that thinking offends your PC view of capitalism. I suspect you would be more comfortable in a totalitarian capitalist regime where noone can question your views?

You are the one who seems to be quite offended on a regular basis by Capitalism. If you don't like the USA, don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out. Sure the US has it's problems, by is still BY FAR the gratest place on earth.

 

[bfdd]

Dunno, hows that capitalist rat-race to the bottom working out for us workers here?

I will not "defend" the craphole of the soviet government but it is fun to learn about different ideas!

why do you view it as a race to the bottom instead of a race to equality? i mean it's not a perfect race to equality as some are abusing it and making themselves extremely UNEQUAL, but for the most part wages in the USA have to come down or wages around the world need to come up. Either things will get cheaper, our wages coming down, or things will get more expensive, the rest of the world catches up.

 

[werepossum]

A man in Soviet Russia saves his money to buy an automobile. When he has the money saved, he goes down to the government Zil dealership to buy the one model offered. After he fills out all the forms and hands over his money, the car salesman says "Congratulations, comrade! Your automobile can be picked up in ten years."

The man thinks for a minute and asks "Morning or afternoon?" Nonplussed, the salesman asks why it matters. "Well", he says, "the plumber is coming by in the afternoon."

Life under communism sucked. Germany has spent two decades and billions of marks trying to bring East Germany up to the standards of West Germany, with varying degrees of success. Yeah, you were guaranteed a job. Organ donor is a job, and if you displeased the Party that's about all you could get.

 

[Throckmorton]

Living in the most advanced, most prosperous society ever seen in the history of man? Oh, it's working out just fine.

Most prosperous? WHAT?

 

[K1052]

Yea, the GDR was so fabulous they had to build a wall to keep everyone else out.

 

[Steeplerot]

is still BY FAR the gratest place on earth.

You numbskulls keep repeating these patently untrue generalizations as we march off the cliff.

Our very own home-grown Baghdad Bobs of the Banker class.

 

[Steeplerot]

Either things will get cheaper, our wages coming down, or things will get more expensive, the rest of the world catches up.

Or the rich are just getting richer as everyones else's wages go down. This is the status quo by the way. Take a look at history.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

Living in the most advanced, most prosperous society ever seen in the history of man? Oh, it's working out just fine.

Unless a person picked out a profession that could be performed by trained orangutan.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

Here is the interesting part of this: Another Comrade who is from (eastern Germany) DDR was asked about this also:


What do you miss most about living in the "Evil Empire":


1. Freedom of speech. This may sound strange, but as one of them put it, "In the East, you were forbidden to rant about the state, but you were free to say whatever you wanted about your boss. Now the reverse is true." Upon my persistent asking, he explained that, as long as you didn't say stuff like "socialism sucks", you could criticize everything you wanted, and according to him, the right to step up to your boss and shout into his face when he treats you unfairly was worth much more than the freedom of speech that we have in capitalist states.

2. Solidarity. Even though Marxist education didn't work too well on people, there was still some kind of class consciousness. You would see a stranger and know that he's your comrade, your fellow proletarian, and therefore there would be solidarity between you. It was no problem to ask anybody for a favor, and people were, generally, much friendlier with each other.

3. The welfare state. Housing and food were ridiculously cheap. An apartment cost about 50 marks a month back then. This makes 12,5 Western marks, which in turn makes 6,25 euros, which in turn makes about five dollars. FIVE DOLLARS. Every student in grade 11 or higher got 110 marks per month. Just as a reward for being so ambitious. Now if a month's rent was less than half of that, you can imagine just how much 110 marks were for a teenager. And apparently there were lots of financial benefits like this one.

4. The right to work. I guess this is an obvious one. If you were looking for work, you'd always find a job on a construction site or similar.

5. Security. Due to all the above benefits, people in the GDR always had a strong sense of security. They were absolutely certain that life would always be okay, even without bananas and coffee, because they just couldn't imagine that there were things like begging or being homeless. Sadly, this is also why they wanted capitalism so bad in the end. They'd never experienced just how bad life can be.

It was so great they had to build a wall around it to keep all those poor West Germans from sneaking in.

 

[Steeplerot]

It was so great they had to build a wall around it to keep all those poor West Germans from sneaking in.

Well, this is your view of it from the other side. I am assuming you have nothing to add as you were not there besides more of the same cold war era rhetoric?

These countries are long gone aspects of history. We can actually look at them and observe, god will not come down and smash us with a hammer for being curious about stuff outside the USA.

Anyhow, some statistics of the horrible GDR.

49% of people who live in the former GDR think that the GDR had more good sides than bad sides.
Only 26% of people said that it was a dictatorship with more bad sides than good sides.

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/959/473475/text/

Over twice as many people think positive of former East German Socialist Dictatorship then people support the Teaparty in the USA.. Go Righties!

 

[Fern]

Well, this is your view of it from the other side. I am assuming you have nothing to add as you were not there besides more of the same cold war era rhetoric?

Red, did you ever visit the USSR?

I did. I don't think you know what you're talking about. I lived in West Berlin for several years, surrounded by Eastern Germany. I visited there several times. Eastern Germany had one of, if not the best standands of living in those Eastern block countries.

Even so, many buildings were in horrible shape, many in ruins, no money for maintenence and upkeep. The quality in products, everything from clothes to food was absolutely horrid. Polution was terrible; in Berlin we often had warnings (sirens) that told us to stay indoors because of the severity of pollution blowing in from Eastern Germany.

Gawd, it was bleak.

Fern

 

[PeshakJang]

Most prosperous? WHAT?

We have the largest economy in the world, after being founded a little over 200 years ago.

You can disagree with current politics, or you may see things as getting worse, or you may think the grass is greener somewhere else... but if looked at in totality, compared to the rest of the world and all of history, there is no nation that surpasses the US in terms of national prosperity.

 

[Steeplerot]

Even so, many buildings were in horrible shape, many in ruins, no money for maintenence and upkeep. The quality in products, everything from clothes to food was absolutely horrid. Polution was terrible; in Berlin we often had warnings (sirens) that told us to stay indoors because of the severity of pollution blowing in from Eastern Germany.

Gawd, it was bleak.

Fern

Sounds like you wandered into a middle america wal-mart parking lot.

 

[werepossum]

Red, did you ever visit the USSR?

I did. I don't think you know what you're talking about. I lived in West Berlin for several years, surrounded by Eastern Germany. I visited there several times. Eastern Germany had one of, if not the best standatd of living in those Eastern block countries.

Even so, many buildings were in horrible shape, many in ruins, no money for maintenence and upkeep. The quality in products, everything from clothes to food was absolutely horrid. Polution was terrible; in Berlin we often had warnings (sirens) that told us to stay indoors because of the severity of pollution blowing in from Eastern Germany.

Gawd, it was bleak.

Fern

"Bleak" is probably the best possible word to describe life in the Soviet Union. Or under communism in general.

 

[nick1985]

Sounds like you wandered into a middle america wal-mart parking lot.

No, I think he said he wandered into East Germany.