It seams to say that the soviet union was rather unstable because people were not going to work when the money they earned from working wasnt worthwhile since all there basic needs were met anyway. I think its saying that the workers were not yet ready for socialism to progress this quickly and there was still a fundamental underlying greed within its society that needed to be stamped out.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 9 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

The point Parenti is making was that socialism wasn't perfect. There were flaws and issues with this to some degree. It wasn't that there was an "underlying greed," though. Even with the odd person not showing up to work, economic growth was still positive all the way up to the end of the USSR. Following up Blackshirts and Reds with Do Publicly Owned, Planned Economies Work? by Stephen Gowens is a good way to look at some of the actual economic statistics.

One thing also important to know is that the economy exploded after the USSR was dissolved, and their raw productive capacity largely has not been reached in these post-socialist states due to the inefficiencies of capitalism.