Man, I never went the marriage route, but you really went for it! ;)
I'll swap black and white photos in exchange for healthcare, education, housing, and other basic needs. This is what we don't understand. We get cheap credit to buy BS yet live on the cusp of poverty.
We spend our lives worrying about money to buy survival, and our country is rich. Why does our government continuously ensure the wealthy are taken care of while people are sleeping on the streets? Why are there billions for wars yet none for the public? The corruption is so blatant, and we ignore it.
The West isolated the East and vice versa. The Iron Curtain curtailed development intentionally, yet the Soviets made it to space before the West. Ya, life wasn't ideal in the USSR, but it's dystopic in the US, and we defend it.
The link I sent is collection of qualitative and quantitative data capturing living standards pre and post-shock therapy. The suffering was more severe than any depression in history after our economists assisted the USSR with transforming their economy. Yeltsin sold the country to oligarchs, and Zelensky is doing the same to Ukraine.
No, the sanctions aren't justified because the public suffers, and propaganda helped to kill the worker's movement. Russia's war wasn't unprovoked, but the US/West did nothing to simmer tensions. Now, it has no problems with intervening, but it's too late. It's a f*cking tragedy.
I theorize the US sanctions socialist/communist nations to keep us from realizing a labor economy benefits us and to punish countries for denying US corporate profits.
I've lived in Central and South America, and they hate the US more than Russia and China - for good reason.
You and I want the same thing; peace, but we disagree on the way to achieve it. That's what upsets me the most - we're good, but our government divides and confuses the public to serve a minorities' interests. Are the US weapon manufacturers willing to donate, no strings attached their enormous profits to Ukraine? Are our ethical oil and gas companies that price gauge the gas sold to Europe willing to, in good faith, "sacrifice" some of their earnings?
I can scream my head off about Russia, but I'm a US citizen, and supposedly, I have a say in my government's decisions.
