why did the USSR collapse?

[harmonica]

was the economy based on oil too much?--along with a poor political/economic system??
it that it basically?
that does sound like a weak foundation
I am no expert at all on this subject--thanks all civil replies
Was the Soviet Union’s Collapse Inevitable?
Cold War Museum

 

[JoeB131]

Same reason the British Empire Collapsed.

Eventually, all empires collapse. Because the imperial nation gets tired of ruling and the subject people get tired of being ruled.

To say the USSR collapsed because of "Communism' is just as foolish as saying the British Empire collapsed because of Capitalism.

 

[harmonica]

Same reason the British Empire Collapsed.

Eventually, all empires collapse. Because the imperial nation gets tired of ruling and the subject people get tired of being ruled.

To say the USSR collapsed because of "Communism' is just as foolish as saying the British Empire collapsed because of Capitalism.

do you think it's more of a financial issue?

 

[Ecocertifmrl]

Read the russian sources - the americans historians don't know shit about the world.

 

[shockedcanadian]

was the economy based on oil too much?--along with a poor political/economic system??
it that it basically?
that does sound like a weak foundation
I am no expert at all on this subject--thanks all civil replies
Was the Soviet Union’s Collapse Inevitable?
Cold War Museum

The system itself was flawed, citizens unmotivated. All centralized, planned systems are apt to fail, as an example, Canadas own caste system would probably have twice it's debt, half it's jobs and a fraction of it's economic activity without U.S capitalism subsidizing it (in some cases outright giving us your jobs). Russia had no such capitalist benefactor, it was doomed.

I recall a story in which the economy made a certain number of eye glass frames but an underproduction of eye glasses to go into the frames. Massive overage and waste like this across all industries. The slow, moving dinosaur and it's hierarchy of power eventually couldn't squeeze anything more.

 

[harmonica]

Read the russian sources - the americans historians don't know shit about the world.

I agree reading about history from the 'natives' gives you a 'better' understanding--more detail....? interesting detail

 

[Ringel05]

Same reason the British Empire Collapsed.

Eventually, all empires collapse. Because the imperial nation gets tired of ruling and the subject people get tired of being ruled.

To say the USSR collapsed because of "Communism' is just as foolish as saying the British Empire collapsed because of Capitalism.

That is a gross generalization and not really correct.
http://people.uncw.edu/kozloffm/glubb.pdf

 

[JakeStarkey]

USSR collapsed because the centralized economic planners could not produce an economy that moved the nation forward while feeding the workers adequately at the same time.

 

[Natural Citizen]

Economic decline is one of the main things that necessitated reform.

Guess what. We're heading down the same path. We have a planned economy. We have a welfare state. We have inflationism. We have central economic planning by a central bank. We have economic interventionsm. We have inflationism. We have a belief in deficit financing. And our dollar is worth about four cents now. This is so far from free-market capitaism that it's laughable to call it capitalism.

The reality is that the fastest way to destroy a nation is to debase its currency.

 

[JakeStarkey]

And none of those things individually or collectively, Natural Citizen, are heading to internal economic collapse.

You are right that our economy is not capitalistic: it is fascist central government-business planning.

 

[JoeB131]

do you think it's more of a financial issue?

Nope, not at all. Let's be straight up about the sequence of events. Various countries in the USSR declared independence and autonomy because they wanted to rule themselves, not because of economic reasons. Most of these countries became POORER after leaving the USSR.

The real problem is that you had 150 Million Russians trying to control 300 million non-Russians in the USSR and Warsaw Pact countries, and they got fed up with it.

 

[JoeB131]

That is a gross generalization and not really correct.

It accurately describes the fall of every Empire in history.

 

[shockedcanadian]

Economic decline is one of the main things that necessitated reform.

Guess what. We're heading down the same path. We have a planned economy. We have a welfare state. We have inflationism. We have central economic planning by a central bank. We have economic interventionsm. We have inflationism. We have a belief in deficit financing. And our dollar is worth about four cents now. This is so far from free-market capitaism that it's laughable to call it capitalism.

The reality is that the fastest way to destroy a nation is to debase its currency.

If you see America as centralized planning I'd hate to see how you guys view Canada.

The economic planning of banks is in regards to monetary policy that is vastly different than controlling the means of production. I do agree, too much government intervention is a failure waiting to happen, which is why Trumps efforts to shrink government must be applauded.

I also dislike subsidies, corporate welfare and the like. I am ok with beneficial tax treatment of R&D and new and developing companies and industries, but they must win or lose on their own merit.

Of course we all oversimplify why USSR collapsed, there are so many issues, but to me it was primarily economic. Russia was dramatically hurt by trying to keep up with the U.S military/nuclear expenditure also by the way, I forgot to mention that.

It's hard to keep satellites happy when you cannot support them financially and the West is working overtime to educate their citizens on what they are missing by not being capitalist and free.

 

[Tehon]

And none of those things individually or collectively, Natural Citizen, are heading to internal economic collapse.

You are right that our economy is not capitalistic: it is fascist central government-business planning.

It is capitalistic in the sense that the government-business partnership exists to increase private profit, the hallmark of capitalism.

 

[Ringel05]

That is a gross generalization and not really correct.

It accurately describes the fall of every Empire in history.

Maybe if you read the book (pdf) in the link you would know better.

 

[Natural Citizen]

And none of those things individually or collectively, Natural Citizen, are heading to internal economic collapse.

You are right that our economy is not capitalistic: it is fascist central government-business planning.

Time will tell, I suppose. Personally, I don't particularly care beyond sporting conjecture. I'm gonna be chillaxing on a tropical beach some place with blue waters soakng up some rays with the little mamacita and sipping on those little pink fruity things with the umbrellas in em and whispering sweet nothings into her ears.

 

[Bleipriester]

was the economy based on oil too much?--along with a poor political/economic system??
it that it basically?
that does sound like a weak foundation
I am no expert at all on this subject--thanks all civil replies
Was the Soviet Union’s Collapse Inevitable?
Cold War Museum

The desire to keep up with the West.

 

[sparky]

Same reason the British Empire Collapsed.

Eventually, all empires collapse. Because the imperial nation gets tired of ruling and the subject people get tired of being ruled.

To say the USSR collapsed because of "Communism' is just as foolish as saying the British Empire collapsed because of Capitalism.

That is a gross generalization and not really correct.
http://people.uncw.edu/kozloffm/glubb.pdf

yup....200-250 years .....nothing to get nervous about!

~S~

 

[toobfreak]

was the economy based on oil too much?--along with a poor political/economic system??
it that it basically?
that does sound like a weak foundation
I am no expert at all on this subject--thanks all civil replies
Was the Soviet Union’s Collapse Inevitable?
Cold War Museum

Because they eventually ran out of other people's money. The only system that truly works and endures is a system that creates personal autonomy and wealth for the people, thereby giving the individual incentive and motivation to raise the economy because they get a direct piece of the action in its success. Governments don't create economies, people do. As soon as you stop rewarding effort, take away incentive by forcibly spreading the wealth equally as much between the takers as you do the producers, people lose the desire to produce.

 

[Natural Citizen]

If you see America as centralized planning I'd hate to see how you guys view Canada.

The economic planning of banks is in regards to monetary policy that is vastly different than controlling the means of production. I do agree, too much government intervention is a failure waiting to happen, which is why Trumps efforts to shrink government must be applauded.

I also dislike subsidies, corporate welfare and the like. I am ok with beneficial tax treatment of R&D and new and developing companies and industries, but they must win or lose on their own merit.

Of course we all oversimplify why USSR collapsed, there are so many issues, but to me it was primarily economic. Russia was dramatically hurt by trying to keep up with the U.S military/nuclear expenditure also by the way, I forgot to mention that.

It's hard to keep satellites happy when you cannot support them financially and the West is working overtime to educate their citizens on what they are missing by not being capitalist and free.

Something to keep an eye on given you've reminded of it here, is the recent popularization of weaponizing space.

There's a reason for that. Every single bit of the world's finacial clearing happens in space. And there's a lot to say about that. Too much this discussion. WWIII, in my personal view, will be a silent war. An economic war of digital proportions. Back when all of that hype was going on about the NSA spying on Americans, nobody really talked about the deeper thing which was going on. The bulk of the spying was actually on the financial clearing tracks of other nations. That's, again, a digital affair.

If we're paying attention over the last few years we've seen some rather interesting mergers between nations to put satellites upstairs. And they've done so. They've put em up there already whe nthe yfound out what we were doing. Which is likely the reason for the sudden public popularization by the Trump administration to create that other branch of military so to speak. The reality is that it's already in place. It has been for some time.

Trumps recent NASA appointment was, I think, interesting, too. Seems like there might be a need to kind of coordinate between one space program to another about what's happening up there.