[Lazamataz]

Brilliant point by Sen. Cruz.

Short story: I had a Russian friend come visit, and took him to a typical American grocery store. He was most amazed by the fact we had multiple brands of products.

I asked him, “You don’t have that in Russia?”

He replied, “No. When you go to the store, you buy rice. You buy coffee. The packages have that single word on it, maybe some instructions. No brands. Just rice. Just coffee.”

[21twelve]

A friend of ours daughter was in South America for quite awhile helping the poor. It was quite the culture shock when she came back to the states.

She sat down in the aisle at Costco crying. (Yes - she is a liberal, but still just a kid with a huge heart.) I hope someday she realizes WHY Costco is stuffed to the brim with all of that crap.

[Alberta's Child]

Your post reminds me of a story I read about Anatoli Tarasov, the legendary Soviet hockey coach in the 1960s and 1970s. He was very critical of American hockey but found our society fascinating. I'll paraphrase something he said (this might be very close to the exact quote) that captured the essence of both:

"You put men on the moon, you teach dolphins to do tricks in front of spectators, and you have dozens of different kinds of mayonnaise in the aisles of your grocery stores ... but your hockey players can't even pass the puck accurately to someone three meters away."

LOL.

[cyclotic]

I heard that Gorbachev had a similar reaction when he went to a grocery store in America. Even though he could have anything he ever dreamed of, the fact that the average American could do the same boggled his mind.

This event convinced him that we would win.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

This is true, based upon being there in 2005.

A variation on that story it’s said “In Russia people wait for the bread”. In America , bread waits for the people”.

[goodnesswins]

Interesting...I would have thought in the last 40 years options would have improved fir the Russian population.