Its great, until people are starving to death because the economy collapsed and you have to trade your valuables for a piece of bread. Pretty soon you'll have to carry a hammer to hit theives with everytime you go for a bicycle ride.... Its all fun and games until shit gets real.
Its funny how people talk about situations they've never been in, but in real life, if they were faced with that situation for real, not a word they ever spoke would be true.
Thats a true story by the way... My dad has a friend who moved here from another country. And I cant remember exactly where he was from off the top of my head, but living conditions there are much worse than in the united states. Anyways, he used to tell me stories about things that happenned back home. And he used to talk all the time about the theives who would jump you if you rode a bike thru a certain part of town... And he lived on one side of it, and worked on the other side of it... And they were too poor to own an automobile, so everyday, he had to ride his bike thru the bad part of town, not once, but TWICE! He said he would get so sick of being jumped that he'd carry a hammer with him everywhere he went. He said one time, they stole his bike, his boots, his shirt and his hat... Everything except his underwear, and he had to walk home... He said thats it, ive had enough of this, and he started carrying a hammer to work everyday... He said put a few guys in the hospital but tried not to kill anyone.
Where that guy grew up was fucked up. If I remember right, he said it was a communist country... He hated it, obviously, he moved to the united states... But anyways, he said the government was in charge of everything. You couldnt take your money and just go buy whatever you wanted... The government would give each family a certain number of vouchers for everything they needed. Like you could only get 2 packs of bacon a month, 4 loafs of bread, 2 ham or whatever... Even clothing... They didnt sell pre-made clothes in that country. Again, each month you'd get a voucher. like 2 yards of fabric or 4 yards of fabric.... So youd take the fabric home and make your clothes with it. He was a big ol fat guy and he said America is the greatest place in the world because you can buy as much bacon as you want... He said one year for his birthday, that was his birthday present... For the first time in his life he got 2 pieces of bacon instead of 1. FYI, he wasnt fat until he came to America....
Anyways, the only way you could get more of something was if you saved up your vouchers for something you didnt want, and you traded them with another family... Like I'll give you 2 loafs of bread for 2 yards of fabric. Youd trade the vouchers and go get it with the voucher... He said it was a horrible system because people often starved, or needed medicine that was unavailable... It wasnt like in America where you can just take your money and go buy whatever you want... AND he said the worste part of it all, was how they were assigned jobs... You cant decide, I want to be a carpenter, or I want to be a computer tech.. You dont have a choice. They tell you what job you will work whether you like it or not, thats your job... Like if your dad is in a certain field or works a certain trade, then they will assign you to the same trade assuming you've learned from him..... If you dont want that job and you want to do something else, too bad. Im not sure what happens if you refuse to work the job you were assigned. I dont know if they shoot you or just take you to prison or what...
Its pretty hardcore in countries like that... People are always trying to escape and sometimes people are caught trying to leave and the punishment is hardcore for it. People in America really dont know how good they've got it.
