Main Reasons for the collapse of Communism

That's not an explanation, it's an assertion. It might be correct, but, how would we know?

Traitorfish said:

That's not an explanation, it's an assertion. It might be correct, but, how would we know?

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Through academic examination, of course.

Luckymoose said:

The key cause of the collapse of communism has been capitalism. McDonalds and Coca-Cola, Mickey Mouse and Freedom! If you focus your communist economy on heavy industry instead of Coca-Cola and video games, you're gonna have a bad time.

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very interesting observation.

From what I've gathered common middle class people (non party members) in the communist countries were deprived of these things. They all had jobs, access to free health care and higher education, however, the wages were low, just enough to make a living, those who owned telephones, color TVs and cars were in the minority.
There was the ban on pornography as well-must have been frustrating!

daft said:

very interesting observation.

From what I've gathered common middle class people (non party members) in the communist countries were deprived of these things. They all had jobs, access to free health care and higher education, however, the wages were low, just enough to make a living, those who owned telephones, color TVs and cars were in the minority.
There was the ban on pornography as well-must have been frustrating!

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It isn't a lack of wages, though that did occur at numerous points in the example Soviet economy (wherein real wages plummeted at some points), so much as it is the focus of the economy. Stalin loved heavy industry. He was big on that, and as a result the consumer goods industry basically didn't exist. During the post-Stalin era they implemented a number of quality assurance programs for consumer goods, but it didn't mean much when the products were wholly inferior to Western counterparts and everything was rationed still.

by the time the soviet union ended, the money wasn't worth the paper it was printed on.
according to a professor i had in college when i was working on my bachelor's, she owned a factory in romania with her husband and russia never really cared about deadlines and would pay them in full with no complaints no matter how long it took them to finish their product and get around to shipping it
countries got sick of russia's shenanigans (starting with the baltics)

take your pick