You reminded me of something. I heard in the Czech Republic when communism ended, the state owned industries became owned by the public. Every citizen received a share.

I wonder if we're going to need something similar when AI nukes the economy.

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jabron 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It worked that way in Russia too. Some people managed to quickly consolidate those shares by exploiting the economic hardship of the people caused by the fall of the USSR by hoovering up those shares for Kopecks on the Rubel, and that's where the current day oligarchy was formed.

	▲	SoftTalker 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Same thing would happen. There'd be signs on every street light pole "Sell your AI shares. CASH PAID TODAY!!"
	▲	tdeck 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Reminds me of this somewhat related video that describes the process of selling off state industries in East Germany https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cdrSiIoWm7U&pp=ygUMZ2RyIHRyZXV...
	▲	pimeys 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		A bottle of vodka for your shares, comrade. Etc...
	▲	453yuh46 an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		No. Nothing to do with current criminal oligarchs, that are consolidating businesses by robbing owners of companies by overtaking their business with force and access to state and Putin. Like it was with conflict with division of Wildberies, when owner had to cooperate with Chechen mafia so her ex-husband would not have robbed her of her business. Hodorkovsky became oligarch, because he represented Western investors in very profitable oil industry, that is basically what Russia was able to offer to the world, as most of factories from Soviet times were not usable in market economy - nobody wanted what they produced. That is the reason why many people were having hardships in 1990ies, because they had no job and no money to exist. Only in times of Putin Russia had influx of foreign money from oil and gas, which was redistributed to other people as well. But everything is fleeting in Russia.

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lo_zamoyski 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The transition from communism to capitalism was hardly as rosy as people in the West like to think.

Of course, how this unfolded varied. For example, unlike the chaotic Russian privatization that created a class of oligarchs, the transition in places like Poland favored a network of well-placed insiders, a highly structured network of intelligence officers (military, civilian), state managers, and flexible communist party elites, who - by controlling information, intelligence networks, and the liquidation apparatus - effectively laundered their authoritarian political privileges into financial dominance.

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jacquesm 2 hours ago | parent [-]

It's incredible that none of this stuff was repossessed.

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pimeys 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Yes. Should also cover what happened in East Germany when the wall went down. And people are now somehow surprised when everybody's kind of pissed outside of the few big cities.

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jacquesm 2 hours ago | parent [-]

There was a West Berlin bunch of real estate tycoons that got wind the wall was about to fall and they went across and started buying property left, right and center. They made billions on that, effectively owning the heart of Berlin post unification.

Funny story: I once got arrested at Checkpoint Charlie :)

	▲	pimeys an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Here some pics from those empty skyscrapers that are completely missing all the walls and the scaffolding's been gathering rust for years. And all the court cases for the people who bought the "luxury apartments" that never realized. I'm always surprised that the topography of terror exhibition in Berlin misses this part of the German history. Nazi's and communists are presented, but the robber barons who bought all the real estate don't get a presentation.