Working class

[joanna bujes]

At 09:44 AM 07/03/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>I don't think this is quite true, at least in Russia. Male life expectancy
>has declined about 10 years, but that's mainly due to massive increases in
>alcoholism (it was hard to be an alcoholic in the Soviet Union), murder,
>suicide and a huge, huge increase in stress-related diseases. Female life
>expectancy has only dropped about 2 years -- if it was due simply to
>collapse of the medical system (which is actually still free in Russia), you
>would expect a larger drop. Medical care in Russia is far from stellar, but
>it's really not that bad.

Thanks for the correction. The more important point had to do with whether 
the communists did anything for the working class. Since the demise of the 
communists, the working class is apparently, by your own testimony, 1) 
drinking itself to death, killing eachother, and killing themselves. So, I 
still conclude that life for the working class took a serious dive after 
the demise of the commies.

Joanna