Neither, I don't want to live in the seventies.
Regardless, bogus question is bogus. Given that the Soviet Union had started with what was essentialy a medieval society in 1917 that was devestated by war, endured another decade of brutal civil war, and then five years of an even more brutal war in which their civilian population losses were about as high as all the rest of the Allies combined (both civilian and non-civilian), I'd say being able to challenge a country that had started as a world power and been allowed roughly a century of uninterupted economic development is doing rather well.
Yes, life in the Soviet Union wasn't great and for the most part, America offered a better quality of life. However, the question is still moot because what you are really asking is "Would you prefer to live in a superpower that had benefited from over a century of uninterupted growth with no real wars on their territory, or in what had started out as an essentialy medieval country that suffered through brutal wars for about 1/3 of its existence?"
is spelled with a banana in the end
It's not like you can point o anyplace that things were great for all people. In the US in 1972 things were improved and improving for nearly all groups and individuals. You can't really say that about many other places.
