Quote Originally Posted by hddscan View Post
the socialism always goes for equalizing living conditions among different social groups of a society(for example - Sweden). Capitalism cares less about it(for example - USA)
But in general what matters most is economy, the better the economy the more people care about something beside food and shelter - Maslow pyramid is in action.
Could it be possible that USSR would have remained socialistic and have high life standards - yes, it would have(in some other time), Sweden is an example. Could have USSR be better economically if it would have been capitalistic, yes, it would have, the US is an example.
It's the matter of perspective.
I would say the more developed the country is(economically and culturally) - the more socialistic it would become. USSR was destined to fail because it was too young to be socialistic.

As for democracy - it does not exist, the same way as communism couldn't exist.
Interesting comments. I agree with most of what you say.
But as a Swedish person I don't believe that my country is socialist, and neither to most Swedish people, apart from right wing people who want to whinge about things they don't like.

I don't think it can be called "socialist" because there has always been private ownership of a large part of the industry. I admit that there was a period during the 1960s — 1985 when there was a lot of socialist "paraphernalia/language and ideology. The state owned all utilities companies and there were virtually no private alternatives in healthcare, education etc. A lot of people believed that the eventual victory of communism was inevitable.

But socialism was never fully in charge of the country, and in the 1990s, the state sold off their companies and introduced market pricing on most things.

I just don't agree with it being labelled "socialist" either by you or by Chemist12. Today, it's absolutely like any other Western European country.

But I think the USSR is very fascinating as a project, an experience etc. I would like to understand what was good and bad about it, what exactly made it voluntarily dissolve itself and fail. Can socialism and communism help the developing world?

The challenge about it is that everything relating to the USSR is hidden behind strong feelings of people who experienced it, layers of propaganda and illusion coming from every angle of historical documentation.