Why smart people continue to say this is beyond me. There were so many problems with the USSR - central planning, corruption, bureaucracy, secrecy, misaligned incentives - and it's just not true that everyone was equal. Very few rational people would agree that the USSR is something that we should aspire to.
As far as I can tell, "look how well it worked for the USSR" is just a trope that's trotted out by people who don't want to accept that alternatives to the status quo might be possible.
As far as I can tell, "look how well it worked for the USSR" is just a trope that's trotted out by people who don't want to accept that alternatives to the status quo might be possible.