They didn’t want to have private cars, public transit is much more efficient and more pro-social. People wanted cars, so they gave them cars, but the cars were pretty bare-bones and it took a long time to get one.

They did have plenty of issues, and yes, they spent a huge proportion of their industrial capacity on the military. Do you wonder why they spent so much on the military? Because they were heckin’ bad authoritarians? Or maybe it might have something to do with having been invaded and losing 27 million people, and then immediately have their former allies turn on them and become openly hostile immediately after the war.