What is this? A new Living Marxism representative? Most Americans do think that socialism means "no cool cars," but that is because they are addicted to consumerism. They have to be educated that internal combustion automobiles are a menace to society, as Nader rightfully points out.
As far as movies are concerned, the socialist countries made much more interesting films on average than the West. One of the great tragedies of the fall of the Soviet bloc is that local film industries have been destroyed. The Czech and Polish state-owned studios are gone forever. People's choice in cinema is identical to our own: 57 varieties of horseshit. I have a critic's pass to Sony Theatres because of my membership in the NY Online Film Critics Society. I haven't used it once.
Louis Proyect
(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)