This is what annoys me when people say the US has higher salaries than in Europe. That's true but then the cost of everything, especially healthcare is so much higher that it pretty much evens out.
Social democracy with a fair distribution of wealth ensures equitable outcomes for all which is ultimately better for society.
About the only good thing the USSR did was keeping the West serious about bribing the poor to stop them from overthrowing the elites because there was a ready made alternative if inequality got too bad.
That all ended in 1989.