Each Year Quotes
One of the worst problems facing Russia in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union was the health care system. There was not yet a private sector to replace the Communist system and the health care system broke down and the lifespan of the average Russian actually went down significantly during that period. As an example, there was no way to purchase and import pharmaceuticals nor distribute the ones that were available.
This is the origin of one of the first Departments of Commerce.
It is interesting to compare this quotations to one from John Adams {44514} a century earlier or the commonly held view of many critics a century later. Perhaps these “new trends” are not so new after all.