>Also anecdotally: In the year and a half I have spent in Russia, I have met
>one, count 'em, ONE person who thinks the collapse of the USSR was a good
>thing. And the people I hang out with are "middle-class" Muscovites, with
>university educations and jobs that give them living standards at or near
>the level of most middle-class Westerners. (It's hard to explain what
>"Muscovite" signifies in Russia. Moscow is like Paris plopped into the
>middle of Rumania. It's a completely different country from the rest of
>Russia. Moscow plus Moscow Oblast get something like half of the investment
>in the economy.)
>
>Most people will tell you that reform of the country was necessary, sure,
>but that the collapse of the USSR was an utter catastrophe, and definitely a
>crime.
You mean they aren't all citing Hayek on the beauties of the price system as a signaling mechanism and saying the increase in consumer choice has increased their stock of happiness?
Doug