Buddy, people who lived under any kind of communism lived through worse conditions than those kids in Africa that spew all over my TV during the Christmas season.. DEAD BROKE! Of course the shit didn't work, because everything you and everyone around you worked for, the state took. You'd be wiping your ass with some poisonous plant on your front yard, out in butt-fuck nowhere if it weren't for North America (for the record - so would I).
my father went through school taking classes that he wanted to take, for free
up graduation with high honours in hydro geology he was commissioned by the government to out and explore shit, for which he was well paid
we had our own place to live and there was little that my family couln't afford itself if they wanted to
Except that the STORES were empty because of the fundamental problems in infrastructure and relations with other countries.
Then came Glasnost, we let in the West, we let in western products and western ideas but we did nothing to integrate it into our own infrastructure
Once people got a taste for luxury they revolted, the white house was bombed, riots, etc, until the eventual collapse.
That's when my dad left.
The government failed to properly lead the people during a time of technological change, and it wasn't a problem of IDEALS, it was a problem of will and ability on behalf of the leaders.