Reddit reviews The Liberators: My Life in the Soviet Army

If you're interested in learning about life under communism, I can't recommend this highly enough: https://www.amazon.com/Liberators-My-Life-Soviet-Army/dp/0393017591

I might have a different approach to the book because I'm from the former eastern bloc so I could relate to it really well, but people say it's an interesting and funny read for filthy capitalist pigdogs as well.

Yeah, the Soviet invaders were supposed to have white stripes painted on them, but apparently during the invasion they ran out of white paint, so on at least one documented occasion painted Soviets encountered unpainted Soviets and had firefights before they realized the mistake. (See "The Liberators: My Life in the Soviet Army" by Viktor Suvorov. It's cheap, you should read it! http://www.amazon.com/Liberators-My-Life-Soviet-Army/dp/0393017591 )

> Work by definition would become optional, and consumption would become an entitlement disconnected from production. Stripped of its essential role as the way to earn a living, work would instead be an activity one engaged in by choice, for enjoyment, or to afford nicer things.

There's a great and entertaining book called My Life in the Soveit Army about a soldier who truly believes in the communist ideals - that once human nature is transformed "true communism" will be achieved, and all needs will be met, and work will be voluntary. At one point he is arbitrarily jailed, and ends up on a work detail cleaning sewers at a posh resort for the politburo. Still a true believer, while working in the sewers he converses with a colleague about how great things will be once true communism is achieved. The friend simply asks him "who will clean the sewers under true communism?"

The "Earned Income Tax Credit" is the current version of UBI. It was started in 1975 and has been expanded many times since. It's a refundable tax credit, which is like a negative income tax - if you work but don't earn much, you can get extra money from the government rather than paying taxes - and like UBI it was supposed to consolidate and eliminate the need for many other social safety net programs. But it didn't, we still have hundreds of different programs, and we still have poverty.

Call me a skeptic, but I see UBI as just the latest trendy and even more expansive version of approaches that have failed in the past.