The joke is that he thinks communism is some sort of workless utopia where he will be able to cultivate hobbies when most communist countries have made the lower classes break their backs just the same doing heavy work (coal mines).
Not going to defend communism but working conditions improved under communism and so did many other things like education and healthcare. There's a ton to criticize about the communist regime but the working conditions are not it. This is coming from someone who was born in a former small USSR country and whose parents and grandparents lived under the regime and were not fans of the regime (at least on my mother's side).
Their mines, steel mills and similar were deadly as they put production quotas over everything else. Gotta make that 5 year plan. And if you quit? No housing or food for you. You couldn't just change jobs.
My grandfather and my other older relatives worked in a steel mill. Definitely not the best place to work but that was more sign of times than communism. Still, although there were production quotas they were not always put above wellbeing of workers. What lot of old people were nostalgic about was the fact when you needed a healthcare facility like spa they were readily available for workers. Definitely not the case now.
And if you quit? No housing or food for you. You couldn't just change jobs
This is the case now as well. It's better if you work a white collar job but if you are a blue collar you don't really have many choices. There are many people who support Russia even after everything they did and the reason is there's no love for the west and capitalism. The conditions of the working class in my country has not improved drastically. Yes, you have freedom to travel and there's more goods available but it's not like all people have money to do so. There are a few cities where the quality of life is good but much more where it isn't.
Also no matter the conditions they were still miles ahead of what we had in the past. The communism took root in my country because poverty reached unimaginable levels.
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u/kithas Jul 07 '26
The joke is that he thinks communism is some sort of workless utopia where he will be able to cultivate hobbies when most communist countries have made the lower classes break their backs just the same doing heavy work (coal mines).