Thanks for your reply, it certainly casts a different light on the post. I now understand better what you meant.

From the people I have met who actually did live there, and came here after it crashed, life there was not as the propaganda made it out to be

As someone who is half Russian, I had relatives who lived during those Soviet years and they always told me it was better than it is now. I don't know, maybe they were the lucky ones, lived in a richer part of the country, or whatever, but it's certainly something to take into consideration.

I don't know as much about politics and economics as I'd like to, but I probably agree that both communism and capitalism are not the answer. Maybe science is? Just leaving each issue to its experts? Who am I to vote on climate change for instance? Who am I to decide about education?

I still think though that it's the state, or some impersonal entity, that should care for the citizens. Because otherwise, if a person has no family, or he happens to have a family that sucks, does that mean he'll have to depend on the kindness of strangers? If I'm a beggar and you come along and help me out, am I supposed to appreciate it and bow down in thanks? If doing what you did is the right thing, then it's your responsibility to do it, not your choice. But you'd argue it's your choice. I definitely don't want welfare to depend on choice. I don't want a cute freckled redhaired ponytailed girl to take precedence over my ugly darkhaired son (I don't have children, just an example) in the surgery room cos the doctors or benefactors are more aroused by her than by him. I'm exaggerating, but you get my point. I don't want to feel beholden to anyone. I don't even like the term charity. It's not charity. It's an obligation. Otherwise it's just like buying flowers. It just so happens that you get a bigger kick our of helping someone cos it makes you feel more superior and you can flaunt it to others or to yourself.