Is The World Better Off Without The Soviet Union ?

[mongers]

So is the world better off now without the Soviet Union compared to one where it survives to this day.

Feel free to make up any speculative alt-history to explain this and I'll won't feel compelled to take any notice.

Currently I'm largely seeing downside, namely:
Increase gangsterism in various parts of the world and much of Russia.

Russians ruining English football, still further.

Drunk Eastern Europeans cluttering up some cultural spots around Europe, which is after all traditionally a British Job.  :

The Soviet Union kept the world safe from Georgians, well the one sane of each generation was usual allowed out on licence.

You generally knew where you were with the Cold War and isn't it going to be stupid if much of the world goes up in flames over some accidental/stupid bullshit as compared to a proper idealogical conflict.


Upside:
British plumbing has never been better.

[Tonitrus]

I think a lot of the Mid-East gangsterism would have occurred anyway...and the Soviet Union brinkmanship games would have just made them all the more complex.

[mongers]

Oops, slight error in the thread title, it should just say
"Is The World Better Off Without The Soviet Union "

The "worse" crept in their before I decided to change the new topic into a poll. 

[mongers]

I think a lot of the Mid-East gangsterism would have occurred anyway...and the Soviet Union brinkmanship games would have just made them all the more complex.

I wasn't thinking of the Mid-East when referring to gangsterism, I was meaning at a baser level, places like the US Eastern Seaboard, Israel and parts of Europe have experience more of it because some of these groups from the former SU are good at being rather ruthless gangsters.

[Sheilbh]

Yes.

I love our new Eastern European neighbours

[Darth Wagtaros]

Martinus might be a colonel in the Warsaw Pact forces by now. 

Tom Clancy might have managed to eek out a few more books rather than turning into a complete -and rather pathetic- hack.

[Sheilbh]

True. The world's gain has been John le Carre's loss

[Tonitrus]

I think a lot of the Mid-East gangsterism would have occurred anyway...and the Soviet Union brinkmanship games would have just made them all the more complex.

I wasn't thinking of the Mid-East when referring to gangsterism, I was meaning at a baser level, places like the US Eastern Seaboard, Israel and parts of Europe have experience more of it because some of these groups from the former SU are good at being rather ruthless gangsters.

I guess I was thinking "gangsterism" in the Soviet anti-capitalism sense. 

But, if the SU were still wobbling along, enterprising gangsters would probably still have left to go where the money is anyway.  They were probably well on their way of doing that just before the collapse anyway.

[jimmy olsen]

Meant to vote yes but hit "in the balance" by mistake.

[garbon]

Tom Clancy might have managed to eek out a few more books rather than turning into a complete -and rather pathetic- hack.

[lustindarkness]

Tom Clancy might have managed to eek out a few more books rather than turning into a complete -and rather pathetic- hack.

That was my first thought.

[Tonitrus]

He doesn't even write books any more, he just lets other hacks slap his name on their books.

[Eddie Teach]

Of course it is, Comrade Mongers.

[Josquius]

Define Soviet Union.
Would the world be better off with a peak of the cold war, imminent nuclear annihilation, a large chunk of Europe locked away under dictatorial rule, etc..... - no way.
Would the world be better off if the Soviet Union had stayed united and managed to reform more succesfully- that could be yes.

[Tamas]

I DON'T KNOW MONGERS, LET ME THINK ABOUT THAT!