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The overthrow of socialism in Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia was a terrible crime against humanity. We learned from our mistakes though and we aren't going to let it happen again.

I've heard that lie many times. Don't believe Rocket Man ^

Living standards have objectively risen in many post communist countries

Measuring long run outcomes in ‘living standards’ is difficult because of general advances in healthcare, education, technology/knowledge spillover etc.

depends on if they embrace a free market or not.

also poland is like only slightly bigger than texas loool

often times it’s because of totalitarianism coupled with communism.

there's a reason why the two go hand-in-hand

East germany out now

totalitarian regimes don't exist

True but the world in general (most notably in countries that have truly undergone economic steps to integrate into the free market) has seen a dramatic rise in living standards in the last 20 years after the fall of communism. Of course there’s a long way to go but that stems from a myriad of issues that communism in the third world (not Eastern Europe) mostly failed to fix

standard of living def isn't going up for my generation. income+wealth inequality at record highs, real wages stagnant, life expectancy actually going down. to pretend things are even actually good for most people in the capitalist hub of the world is a huge stretch

Free Market is a scam

Can’t be a scam if it’s free

Things aren’t good for most people because things were never good for most people and may never be good for most people. Real wages in America have been stagnant but people have more access to luxury items and advanced telecommunications than they did 20 years ago. Life expectancy is rising in many countries, falling in others, it may be falling in the last couple years due to the recent wars and isntability, but I mean in a general trend since the year 1990 they have risen worldwide. Even if the average millennial makes and owns less than the average boomer, the millennials life thanks to technology is actually easier. And this is not me giving breaks to boomers, they’re responsible for most of the messes we’re in. It’s just that people now have it easier than they did in the past. Depression is something else and not something that should really be tied to economics as much as culture because some of the poorest countries tend to have the least proportion of depressed and suicidal people, and we can all agree that we should not be replicating how some of those people are living, and instead continue to better the lives of people in these countries

I'll bless you with some ol' Russian wisdom.

"Only thing in the world that's free is cheese in a mouse trap"

Lol what??? Look at Poland, Serbia, Czech, Ukraine ad the list goes on

Ukraine became the poorest country on the continent after in 2014 replacing Romania (also an eastern block country).

Also soviet Ukraine had a higher industrial output then West Germany.

Reagan worshipers can deep one in and swallow

if depression is tied to culture (a ridiculous statement in all honesty) then so is reporting depression, and something tells me these poorer countries may not have the resources to spend money/time on mental health services.

nice lie

Aside from ukraine and Serbia (in which standards have fallen due to physical conflict moreso than economic changes) the countries you’ve listed ESPECIALLY Poland are better off now. Then there are Latvia, Estonia, Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, China, and Vietnam yeah I’d say that accepting the free market wasn’t the biggest cause of the hardships facing Romania right now

That’s what I’m saying