--- Andy F <andy274 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Remember when this kind of thing was used as a
> benchmark for how the
> former SU was falling apart?
>
[Ws:] Does not the US have a higher crime and incarceration rate than the USSR ever had?
Another point - pilfering from government or employer is a widely spread Third world phenomenon* - not limited to the USSR and EE. The question thus is whether in the US it is something "imported" from the Third World by immigrants (as the concentration of this behavior in southern CA may suggest,) or something that is home-grown and escalating - say, in response to the economic squeeze. Only the latter would be an indicator of the imperial decline.
* In the US it is done legally, and known as "crony capitalism," or "corporate welfare."
Wojtek
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