Rent Control – Affordable Housing

How The Communist Soviet Union Solved It

Or Did They?

When I arrived in the United States, my city of choice was New York City. I found it incredibly beautiful and exciting. Within two week I found a job in my profession and a small studio in Queens. It was a nice, clean apartment building. I didn’t have any furniture and very little money. The building manager took me down in the cellar, where I found just about everything I needed as a temporary setup for my studio. It only cost me $35. My starting salary was $135 per week and the rent was $126 per month. This was my first experience as a new emigrant with no financial means to star a new life.

The year was 1970. Immediately, I said to myself: What A Great Country America Is!

This was a rent controlled area in Queens and it helped me greatly. I lived there for three years. My rent stayed the same while my salary was getting better. During this time, I found a better job in New Jersey. I commuted for six months driving across George Washington Bridge every day. I would take Throghs Neck Bridge and head up North through Bronx. Along the freeway, I could see these tall, wide apartment buildings totally gutted. No windows and no tenants. I could not make anything of it. I just wandered.

Years later, while visiting New York, I drove by my old building in Queens where I lived. The street was a mess. There were damaged cars parked on the street and the building had several broken windows. The small shops, around the corner were boarded up. It was quite depressing to see the place that gave me a foothold in this country just 10 years earlier. The building was still a rent controlled building. I must have been just lucky in my timing. I certainly wouldn’t have moved there at this time at any price. Even if it was free.

When the Government imposes limits on what the private property owners can do, it is just a matter of time for the property to loose all its value.

Communism, the flag bearer Soviet Union under Stalin had an answer to affordable housing.

When communism took over the huge territory that became known as Soviet Union (11 time zones), had to deal with 200+ languages and 50 plus countries, which they attached without asking for permission.

If you don’t understand the concept of communism, here is a simple answer: Soviet Union Communism was Lenin and Stalin. After Lenin died, it was just Stalin. Just one person, Stalin, had absolute power. He ruled with an iron fist.

Stalin had a major problem in his hands: Integration or rather control of all these nationalities. He solved it by locating trustworthy Russian educated talent in high paying jobs and offered them very affordable housing throughout the country.

In 1968, while working for the airline, I had a job assignment in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in Soviet Union. It was a very large facility performing civil aircraft maintenance. The technical staff of 33 engineers and technicians were from every part of the country except Uzbekistan. There were no natives.

Most of them lived in an apartment complex owned by the factory. This was quite a large complex, only available to the factory employees. There were dozens of ugly four story buildings parallel to each other. The apartment buildings had no elevators and no internal toilets. There were several wooden outhouses between the buildings. I have no idea how the tenants managed. They were certainly affordable, the equivalent of about 30 rubles per month on a salary of 1,200 rubles per month. That is affordable. The factory men’s rooms were open holes, partitioned and no doors. This is your government at work if you let it. This factory was only few hundred miles away from the location were the Soviets launched the Sputnik.

If you think affordability was due to a benevolent government, think again. It had to do with power and population control.

In my next post I will talk about Free Education Under Communism.

Note from the editor

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Computer Security

As a computer/internet user you already know how important the security of your computer is. I am a retired computer designer, had computers in my house for more than 25 years. For most part, I didn’t have to worry much about the safety of my computer, except in the last few years. Presently, I am evaluating and changing my computer security program every six months.

Here is the latest: Netcom3 Internet Security.

Better feel safe than sorry.