My family lived in Poland when I was young. We ended up leaving when my father was imprisoned for his political activities (he was involved in the Solidarity movement).
Two points of comparison I can give:
(1) In America, members of my immediate family have political views that are in some way wacky or out of the mainstream, and we've never worried for a second about prison being a consequence.
(2) When we first came to America, we were literally on welfare and lived in a poor/ghetto neighborhood, until my parents learned enough English to get good jobs. Yet this was still a much higher standard of living than what we'd had in Poland, where both of my parents worked as engineers. Much larger apartment, more food, better clothes. No more ration cards for meat and chocolate. Stores that, instead of tiny and half-empty, are giant and piled high with goods. Oranges and bananas just lying around in stores as if they are everyday things, not rare exotic luxuries.
(3) On health care - there were many extremely well-trained and competent doctors in Poland. But availability of equipment and medicine was very extremely poor and hospitals were not well maintained by US standards. Also, medical knowledge among typical doctors, especially on rare diseases or chronic conditions, seemed far behind the US.
(4) I've been back to Poland a few times since the fall of communism. Conditions have very visibly and vastly improved. Apartments are still tiny, but there's plenty of stores piled with goods, bustling cafes and restaurants, and so forth. Construction going on everywhere. Cars are now mostly quality European, America, Japanese and Korean brands. No more Communist-era junkers. Poland now meets the usual European standard of fresh produce that is substantially better quality than what you can get in the typical US supermarket. Western media is everywhere. Many of the cities look quite lively and vibrant. The city that I think most bears the scars of past suffering is Warsaw - it was completely destroyed by the Nazis (particularly including any historic or cultural buildings) and rebuilt by the Communists. Check out the Palace of Culture and Science for another marvel of Soviet engineering: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Palace_of_Culture_and_Sc....
(5) In the US, where I work in the computer industry, I believe I have a higher standard of living overall than probably even the top party leaders in Communist-era Poland.
(6) Math and science education was quite good compared to the US, at the elementary and secondary level, but not at the college level. I think this is a European cultural thing, not a Communist thing, it remains true today, and is true in most European countries. American math & science education in elementary school and high school is a joke, excepting special magnet schools or AP classes.
(7) My impression is that the Communist era is somewhat more romanticized in Russia than in other former Eastern Bloc countries. Particularly the more Western-oriented countries like Poland, Czech and Hungary see that period as one of being imperialist vassal states.
Overall, there's no way, not even the slightest chance, that I'd trade the "free" health care and "non-existent" unemployment for the freedom and wealth of America, or even for the way Poland is now.
Two points of comparison I can give:
(1) In America, members of my immediate family have political views that are in some way wacky or out of the mainstream, and we've never worried for a second about prison being a consequence.
(2) When we first came to America, we were literally on welfare and lived in a poor/ghetto neighborhood, until my parents learned enough English to get good jobs. Yet this was still a much higher standard of living than what we'd had in Poland, where both of my parents worked as engineers. Much larger apartment, more food, better clothes. No more ration cards for meat and chocolate. Stores that, instead of tiny and half-empty, are giant and piled high with goods. Oranges and bananas just lying around in stores as if they are everyday things, not rare exotic luxuries.
(3) On health care - there were many extremely well-trained and competent doctors in Poland. But availability of equipment and medicine was very extremely poor and hospitals were not well maintained by US standards. Also, medical knowledge among typical doctors, especially on rare diseases or chronic conditions, seemed far behind the US.
(4) I've been back to Poland a few times since the fall of communism. Conditions have very visibly and vastly improved. Apartments are still tiny, but there's plenty of stores piled with goods, bustling cafes and restaurants, and so forth. Construction going on everywhere. Cars are now mostly quality European, America, Japanese and Korean brands. No more Communist-era junkers. Poland now meets the usual European standard of fresh produce that is substantially better quality than what you can get in the typical US supermarket. Western media is everywhere. Many of the cities look quite lively and vibrant. The city that I think most bears the scars of past suffering is Warsaw - it was completely destroyed by the Nazis (particularly including any historic or cultural buildings) and rebuilt by the Communists. Check out the Palace of Culture and Science for another marvel of Soviet engineering: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Palace_of_Culture_and_Sc....
(5) In the US, where I work in the computer industry, I believe I have a higher standard of living overall than probably even the top party leaders in Communist-era Poland.
(6) Math and science education was quite good compared to the US, at the elementary and secondary level, but not at the college level. I think this is a European cultural thing, not a Communist thing, it remains true today, and is true in most European countries. American math & science education in elementary school and high school is a joke, excepting special magnet schools or AP classes.
(7) My impression is that the Communist era is somewhat more romanticized in Russia than in other former Eastern Bloc countries. Particularly the more Western-oriented countries like Poland, Czech and Hungary see that period as one of being imperialist vassal states.
Overall, there's no way, not even the slightest chance, that I'd trade the "free" health care and "non-existent" unemployment for the freedom and wealth of America, or even for the way Poland is now.