Ok, so this was brought on by a conversation I have had with my grandmother, which led me to muse on conversations I've had with other members of my family who have lived in Bulgaria during socialism.

It's really fascinating, how much better the quality of life was. No matter what family member I spoke to, throughout my life, this has been a constant.
Even looking at the statistics, during the seventies and eighties, Bulgaria were in the top five for best Education and...

industry sectors in all of Europe.
My grandmother explained to me that the job security was incredible. That if you didn't like your job, if you had an issue or just didn't like the hours, you could quit and find another that same week. Quitting a job didn't impact...

your ability to find another either. It was seen as a natural thing, even being fired had little impact on finding a job bc there was the understanding that certain job's aren't for everyone. My grandmother was horrified when, as a result of the change to capitalism, jobs...

became so scarce and pay so low.
In my grandmother's own words: "We have never had much money, many people were poor, but when there was socialism even the poor went on vacation every summer, and always had what to eat. Now, everyone is poor and starving."

Those words had a huge impact on me. It's quite a difference from what I'd always been taught in school.
Moving on to education, the education in socialist bulgaria was leaps and bounds over what it is now, something my aunt and mom talked about all the time through my...

childhood. My mother was horrified at my american history classes. When she was in Bulgaria, they studied american history through the eyes of the Native Americans. They were required to learn the geography America, and where which tribes were located.
Because of her history

classes, my mother has always had a lifelong love of native american history. Part of my parents' required reading (and it was required through most of Bulgaria), to learn about America was uncle tom's cabin and the writings of Angela Davis.
Even in other parts of education..

studies were comprehensive and much better than most of Europe.
My mom went through university in America and used to laugh at people who said it was hard. She literally could not understand it, saying it was like being in high school.

Socially, there was some censorship, but people in Bulgaria were free to travel, mostly due to their very close relationship with both Russia and China.
There were tons of different subcultures and music scenes, as well as a huge theatre scene in the capital, where my mom lived

The whole "waiting in line" bullshit is something that drives my parents nuts to this day. My mom got so many annoying questions from Americans, even down to things like "You lived in a communist country, did you have an oven?"
She said that the level of ignorance horrified

her.
Now, before I finish this thread, I would like to add one final quote from my grandmother, which I found fascinating.
"There was corruption then, you can't get away from corruption and greed, but even the corrupt to care of the people when Bulgaria was socialist...

because the people could do something about it. Now, there is white supremacy, propaganda, poverty, and the politicians can do whatever they want because the government doesn't care about the people anymore."
It gave me quite a lot to think about.

(This was a brief overview of all the things my family had told me, if you would like to know more please dm me!)