We're Werewolves Not Swearwolves @nikacodes - Tumblr Blog

Hehe, Brushbug. New episode of the anime tomorrow! Shirahama posted these to her twitter today.

Capitalist propaganda: "Monthly food rations per Polish citizen in the early to mid 1980s. But next time socialism will work."

Michael: "Can someone please explain why so many people still take socialism seriously? It has always failed badly, every sing time."

Comrade Jake: "This kind of propaganda completely falls apart when you understand that ration cards were not a limit on how much food you could have. They were a guarantee of your basic necessities. You could still buy surplus food in addition to your rations."

butchblooms

Based on my mom's experience living in Poland in the 70s and 80s, the ration cards were kind of a guarantee that people would get the basics. Often people could have afforded to buy more beyond that, but it just wasn't available. My mom often talks about how store shelves were empty except for vinegar. People knew what day food was delivered to the store and lined up to be able to get some before it ran out and shelves were empty again. That's part of why my mom was so awed when she first came to the US, and why she worked so hard to try and find a way to stay here and raise her kids here. Grocery stores with shelves and shelves of food you could just get any time? It was like a wonderland to her.

It's also part of why I have such a hard time talking to her about anything socialist. Because her experience of it is living under an oppressive Soviet puppet state. It is frustrating but also understandable, because even though I consider myself a socialist, it's hard to argue with someone who grew up and escaped a very fucked up version of it.

moniquill

"People could have afforded more, but there was nothing on the store shelves" vs "The shelves are laden with unimaginable abundance, but no one can afford to buy it."

yukinojou

Also a lot of the time making / distributing more food in exchange for money was illegal because that would have been capitalism. Farmers were allowed to raise livestock for their own purposes but not sell the meat to shops, so when I was an anemic toddler, my mother had to conduct a legit espionage operation to find out who was already illegally buying meat from a farmer, so that our apartment was added to the weekly rounds of a middle-aged woman who toted around like half a calf in her bags, freshly slaughtered meat wrapped in old newspapers. I remember how the fresh blood smelled.

(I also have my old health card with a prescription written by a doctor. The prescription was for extra cheese and butter beyond the ration cards. I was two years old.)