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Survivors of Socialism

It’s not uncommon to hear Canadian-born politicians, university professors and activists speak fondly of socialism and communism.

Yet, why is it that people who have actually lived in such regimes want nothing to do with them?

SecondStreet.org’s Survivors of Socialism project includes interviews with people who came to Canada from socialist and communist regimes, as well as conversations with experts, a policy brief and more.

Most importantly, we asked Canadians who fled such regimes – are there any policies in Canada that concern you as they remind you of the country you left?

Canadians' Stories:

Aime Despaigne discusses her life growing up in socialist Cuba before she came to Canada

Boris Rassin talks about his life in communist Latvia while under the control of the former USSR

Lynn Hu talks about her experience growing up in China and the government’s abuse of human rights

Dana Kovanda talks about life as a child in communist Czechoslovakia and her escape to Canada

Paul Lenarczyk talks about life as a child in communist Poland and adjusting to life in Atlantic Canada

Yali Trost talks about free speech, forced abortion, hunger and more in communist China

Marco Navarro-Genié talks about the devastating effects of socialism in his home country of Nicaragua

Viorica Robinson describes life in Romania and her escape from the communist regime

Mart Salumae talks about life in communist Estonia and dealing with the regime’s religious persecution

Peter Tereschemko tells his story of growing up in Soviet Russia and the daily hardships of living there

Ana Rizo tells her story of growing up in socialist Venezuela and why she’s worried about Canada

Other Interviews & Content:

He was jailed for speaking out against Venezuela’s regime. Activist Rodrigo Diamanti shares his story

Short clip about why communism gets let off the hook for its atrocities

About those Che Guevara t-shirts: Gloria Alvarez discusses Guevara’s hateful ways

She escaped North Korea at just 13 years of age. SecondStreet.org interviews Yeonmi Park

Enzo fled socialist Venezuela so he could provide for his family. He shares his story with SecondStreet.org

Sweden is not socialism. John Stossel takes a closer look at the Scandinavian country

Imagine going from shopping in a sparse Cuban grocery store to a well-stocked U.S. store

China’s boom explained: Shifting from central planning to free markets and private businesses

Hear about how a simple visit to an American grocery store helped shift the Soviet Union away from socialism.

Why does it seem like people who grew up in socialist countries were always hungry?

Research:

SecondStreet.org thought it would be interesting to survey Canadians who come from socialist and communist countries to learn more about why they came to Canada. Further, we wanted to know if any policies in Canada concerned them as they reminded them of the countries they left. Our research paper looks at the track record of socialist and communist countries and includes the results of our survey.

To view our Survivors of Socialism policy brief – click here.

OTHER CONTENT:

While researching our paper, we came across a number of interesting articles, videos and research papers. Here are a few that might be of interest:

Why Socialism Failed: In 1995, University of Michigan Economics Professor Mark Perry wrote a popular column for the Foundation for Economic Education that outlined why he believed socialism failed as an ideology. You can read his column if you click here

Yeltsin Visits an American Grocery Store: “There would be a revolution.” That’s how former Russian President Boris Yeltsin thought the Russian people would respond if they saw what he saw back in 1989 at a random grocery store in Texas. Yeltsin wasn’t yet president and communisms hadn’t yet collapsed in his country. But he would later describe in his biography how this unplanned trip shattered his view of communism. To view the article – click here

Bolivia vs Venezuela: Both Venezuela and Bolivia have elected self-described socialist governments. One has nationalized countless businesses while the other has been not quite as interventionist. This article by the Foundation for Economic Education discusses the results – click here 

The Myth of Scandinavian Socialism: The UK’s Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has a good article that examines why Scandinavian countries aren’t socialist. To view it – click here 

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Prevention – reduce demand in the first place

If Canadians lived healthier lives, we could reduce demand for emergency services, orthopaedic surgeries, primary care and more. 

For instance, if you visit the Canadian Cancer Society’s website, you’ll read that “about four in ten” cancer cases are preventable. The Heart and Stroke Foundation notes that “almost 80 percent of premature heart disease and stroke can be prevented through healthy behaviours.” A similar number of Diabetes cases are also preventable. 

Many joint replacements and visits to ERs and walk-in clinics could also be avoided through healthy living. 

To be sure, not all health problems can be avoided through healthy living – everyday the system treats Canadians with genetic conditions, helps those injured in unavoidable accidents and more.  

But there is an opportunity to reduce pressure on the health care system through Canadians shifting to healthier lifestyles – better diets, more exercise, etc. 

To learn more, watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or see this column. 

Partner with non-profits and for-profit clinics

European countries will partner with anyone who can help patients. 

It doesn’t matter if it’s a non-profit, a government entity or a private clinic. What matters is that patients receive quality treatment, in a timely manner and for a competitive price.  

In Canada, governments often delivery services using government-run hospitals instead of seeing if non-profit or private clinics could deliver the services more effectively. 

When governments have partnered with non-profit and private clinics, the results have often been quite good – Saskatchewan, Ontario and British Columbia are just a few examples of where partnerships have worked well. 

Canada should pursue more of these partnerships to reduce wait times and increase the volume of services provided to patients.  

To learn more, watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or see the links above. 

Make cross border care more accessible

In Canada, citizens pay high taxes each year and we’re promised universal health care services in return. The problem is, wait times are often extremely long in our health system – sometimes patients have to wait years to see a specialist or receive surgery. 

If patients don’t want to wait long periods, they often have to reach into their own pocket and pay for treatment outside the province or country. 

Throughout the European Union, we also find universal health care systems. But a key difference is that EU patients have the right to go to other EU countries, pay for surgery and then be reimbursed by their home government. Reimbursements cover up to what the patient’s home government would have spent to provide the treatment locally. 

If Canada copied this approach, a patient waiting a year to get their hip operation could instead receive treatment next week in one of thousands of surgical clinics throughout the developed world. 

Governments benefit too as the patient is now back on their feet and avoiding complications that sometimes come with long wait times – meaning the government doesn’t have to treat those complications on top of the initial health problem. 

To learn more, watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or this shorter video. 

Legalize access to non-government providers

Canada is the only country in the world that puts up barriers, or outright bans patients from paying for health services locally. 

For instance, a patient in Toronto cannot pay for a hip operation at a private clinic in Toronto. Their only option is to wait for the government to eventually provide treatment or leave the province and pay elsewhere. 

Countries with better-performing universal health care systems do not have such bans. They allow patients a choice – use the public system or pay privately for treatment. Sweden, France, Australia and more – they all allow choice. 

Why? One reason is that allowing choice means some patients will decide to pay privately. This takes pressure off the public system. For instance, in Sweden, 87% of patients use the public system, but 13% purchase private health insurance. 

Ultimately, more choice improves access for patients. 

To learn more, watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or watch this short clip on this topic. 

Shift to funding services for patients, not bureaucracies

In Canada, most hospitals receive a cheque from the government each year and are then asked to do their best to help patients. This approach is known as “block funding”. 

Under this model, a patient walking in the door represents a drain on the hospital’s budget. Over the course of a year, hospital administrators have to make sure the budget stretches out so services are rationed. This is why you might have to wait until next year or the year after for a hip operation, knee operation, etc. 

In better-performing universal health systems, they take the opposite approach – hospitals receive money from the government each time they help a patient. If a hospital completes a knee operation, it might receive, say, $10,000. If it completes a knee operation on another patient, it receives another $10,000. 

This model incentivizes hospitals to help more patients – to help more patients with knee operations, cataract surgery, etc. This approach also incentivizes hospitals to spend money on expenses that help patients (e.g. more doctors, nurses, equipment, etc.) rather than using the money on expenses that don’t help patients (e.g. more admin staff). 

To learn more about this policy option, please watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or see this post by MEI.