Who here lived in a communist country? Report!

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph


Well, me for instance.

Hello! Did you serve in the forces of the DRG? I was in the U.S. Army from 1984-86. I spent several months on temporary duty in FRG keeping an eye on the Soviets during their summer excercizes (druzhba etc.) I'm glad everything worked out peacefully. I wish I could say the same for the middle east.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Azazel
that's very interesting. But I don't understand what do you mean by waiting for a car, esp. if you buy a second-hand car.

I mean a new car of course. A second hand car you could buy any day without having to wait, for nearly the price of a new car, that is.

[Sir Og]

Originally posted by Azazel
Sir Ralph:

that's very interesting. But I don't understand what do you mean by waiting for a car, esp. if you buy a second-hand car.

We had a volga, and after that, we had a ford.

In Bulgaria people had to wait for 10-15 years to buy a car, because the people that wanted to have a car were a lot more than the number of cars produced or imported.
And there wasn't much of a market for second hand cars.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Sikander
Hello! Did you serve in the forces of the DRG? I was in the U.S. Army from 1984-86. I spent several months on temporary duty in FRG keeping an eye on the Soviets during their summer excercizes (druzhba etc.) I'm glad everything worked out peacefully. I wish I could say the same for the middle east.

This time I served as young officer in the Eastern German army, although I wasn't in a combat unit. I was a specialist and dealt with air and cosmic photographs (Mir, Landsat). Later I joined a researcher collective, it was about the introduction of personal computers in our service.

I'm also glad all worked out without combat.

[Az]

Originally posted by Sir Og


In Bulgaria people had to wait for 10-15 years to buy a car, because the people that wanted to have a car were a lot more than the number of cars produced or imported.
And there wasn't much of a market for second hand cars.

guess they' shouldn't have built so many tanks.

But again, my father has bought a Ford not so far away from Romania. in Yugoslavia, to be precise.

[Sir Og]

Yugoslavia had a more open economy than the other communist states.

[Az]

All the production in the hands of the government, yes?
competent!=open.

Besides, you COULD go to yugo, buy that car, and return, you know.

[Sir Og]

In Bulgaria there was practicaly no private sector but it was different in Yugoslavia. A lot of Bulgarians used to go to Yugo to buy clothes, houshold goods, etc.

[Az]

What was the private sector in Yugoslavia?

[Harovan]

Many eastern european countries had at least a rudimentary private sector. In Poland I know, a big part of the agriculture was in private hands. In East Germany, there was a large private sector until 1972, when most of the private factories were nationalized and their owners paid out, which didn't mean much, because there was nothing to buy. But even after this, a big part of handcraft and service, like bakers, butchers, TV and car repair etc. remained in private hands, usually as family enterprises. These people lived fairly good, even though they sounded off louder than others. After the wall fell, they faced more competition, and many of them got bankrupt or live on the verge of bankruptcy.

[Sir Og]

Bulgaria was probably the worst case in terms of size of the private sector. Virtualy all buisnesses were owned by the government. Some small private enterprises started appearing in the late 1980's after "perestroika".

[VetLegion]

Originally posted by Sir Og
Yugoslavia had a more open economy than the other communist states.

This is true. There have been phases in Yugoslavian economy and I am not an expert on it, but it was better off then most other countries because of couple of reasons:

- Competition. Most companies in Y. weren't state owned, they were worker owned and were allowed to compete against each other. Their sucess was to a degree decided by the market, though not completely as state would artificially keep even the unprofitable companies alive. But still, some companies were quite sophisticated and able to compete in western markets too.

- Grey market economy was pretty large. Because most companies had too many workers quite some were seriously underworked and used their time and sometimes company resources or tools to improve their finances on the side.

- Workers abroad. A large number of people worked in west germany or other parts of Europe and they sent a lot of money back home.

[Az]

This doesn't have much to do with cars, does it.

[VetLegion]

Originally posted by Azazel
What was the private sector in Yugoslavia?

I am not quite sure, sorry. I know it was officialy allowed in the late eighties but I do not know how much of it was permitted prior to that. Not much, perhaps none. That is why there was lots of work done after officiall work hours

[Az]

worker owned companies.