• PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPM
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    4 days ago

    Explanation: Despite the Soviet claim of having eliminated joblessness and homelessness, the awful truth is simply that such matters were an issue for arrest during the Stalinist era, and that, compounding this in the data, local authorities would often badger caught homeless folk to simply move on to the next municipality’s problem (and arrest statistic) so that they’d have better numbers to report up the chain.

      • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPM
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        4 days ago

        Sadly, it’s a very old trick for local governments which want to ‘look good’ to their superiors.

        • Dharma Curious@startrek.website
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          4 days ago

          I was gonna say, this isn’t unique to the USSR, or even to openly authoritarian states. It’s the oldest trick in the book, it seems :/