Quote Originally Posted by carl View Post
The homeless in the US are almost never people driven from their homes. The people you see pushing the shopping carts or wandering down the roads wearing everything they own are either substance abusers, crazy people or really lousy criminals or a combination of all 3.
It's an individual / collective difference in that line, a rather weak example.
The overall comparison reveals how much the point of view warps our perception, though. "We" aren't nearly that much better as we think.


I had a similar experience when I looked at West and East German economic growth of the Cold War era: Supposedly, the East German planning economy had ruined East Germany.
Fact was, it did not ruin, but rebuild - with a growing lag of several years in comparison to West Germany and an altogether different set of problems.
The growth rates were actually quite decent, given the extra burdens carried (more %GDP for military, emigration of many working-age inhabitants, reparations to USSR, unfair trade in COMECON), the inferior 'allied' regions' economies and tech base and the smaller export market for its goods.
A planning economy sucks in many ways, but not that badly as Western propaganda made me believe.


I love such thought provoking stuff that challenges entrenched perceptions. It's good for learning about the real world.