The Soviet Union's approach to paid time off (PTO) was unique, as it not only provided workers with time off but also determined how they spent it, often with groups of strangers instead of friends and family. This policy aimed to promote the collective as the most important social unit and provided subsidized vacations to a select number of workers. Although Soviet vacations initially served as team-building exercises, over time, citizens' desire for family vacations increased, challenging the state's policies. The rise of family vacations and personal investment in holidays led to a shift from purposeful production to popular consumption. Soviet vacations played a role in loosening ideological restrictions on freedom, and as travel policies opened the door for political dissent to spread, the government struggled to maintain control over leisure time.
>"The Soviet Union's approach to paid time off (PTO) was unique, as it not only provided workers with time off but also determined how they spent it"
Utter bullshit. I was able to travel to every part of USSR (except of course restricted areas and abroad) during my vacation time without any problems. USSR had gobbles of big problems and general lack of freedom but vacations were not part. As a matter of fact I spent more vacation time in more places than the average North American.
Yes if one wanted they could join some semi-/organized form but there was nothing mandatory about it.
Two sides of the same coin. I know it’s difficult to see it while stuck inside the loop but corporate work is like soviet work with fancy iphones and the illusion of free choice (you can chose as long as the choice is right). The politburo is replaced by the board while the apparatus by management. Conformity and obedience are not just desired are actively encouraged. Spreading corporate propaganda and preventing workers from organising are also shared values. All in all both are systems of oppression with the exception that in free societies you can escape - until of course they find a way to replace people at scale. Then you get sucked back in while the proletariat cheers from the sides.
All things are "the same" at some level of abstraction. But if you have to reach to a high level of abstraction to illustrate that the things are the same, I don't see that as a particularly insightful comparison. Sameness is a mundane observation at a high level of abstraction.
Sort of like just tossing your hands up and saying "life sucks" regardless of what "system" you are living under and then concluding all "systems" are "two sides of the same coin".
There you go. I cant help but wonder what would such people have achieved hadn't they been “freed” of their “burdens” by the “democratisation” of every aspect of free enterprise (coincidentally, communism also saw itself as a democratising force). I have a feeling those people would have lived a free and independent life as a small business owner with employees that looked forward to working with them.
With the extremely minor difference that if you don't go to corporate events the worst that could happen is losing your job, but if you don't obey the government, the worst that could happen is that they kill you
They also eliminated weekends[0] for eleven years, by forcing everyone to take different days for their weekend.
I don't understand the desire to find praise in the Lenin and Stalin regimes, which were as brutal as Hitler's, outside of an ongoing desire to rehabilitate the brand of socialism and make ignorant people forget about its horrors and lies -- like claiming to give its people time for recreation while making a mockery of the concepts of weekends and vacations!
Oh I am not praising stalin and lenin, those two belong in hell. Right along with socialism, communism and corporatism.
> the worst that could happen is losing your job, but if you don't obey the government, the worst that could happen is that they kill you
Well if you lose your job, in some countries, it can equal death and misery. Not by the same means as in the soviet union but by having your access to housing and health care revoked.
> like claiming to give its people time for recreation while making a mockery of the concepts of weekends and vacations!
Some software workers may reveal they can barely enjoy weekends or vacations without an email or a slack message bothering them.
Basically corporatism and communism have both hijacked free and independent enterprise.
