Vacations in the Soviet Union
>It encouraged workers to vacation with groups of relative strangers as opposed to their friends and families.<p>This can actually work out well.  I experienced something similar in the US while on vacation.  I was traveling with someone from Glenwood Springs, CO to Denver, CO via Amtrak.  We went to the dining car for lunch an since there were two of us and space is at a premium, the Amtrak policy was to seat us with one or two random strangers.  We sat and had lunch with an oil executive and someone's grandmother and it was quite an interesting experience and we got to meet two strangers.  It was actually a highlight of that train trip.<p>I feel like the experience of having unplanned social interactions with strangers is often missing in modern American life.  I don't know if the Soviet style of assigning vacation groups via a worker's committee would be pleasant, but I can't help but think things would be better if we had more situations where we are "forced" to engage with strangers.