[cowboyway]

“Unbelievably, the next day after they give thanks for what they already have, they pull each other’s hair out fighting for a TV that was probably cheaper a few days earlier.”

She nailed it.

[econjack]

One of my profs in graduate school (economics) specialized in the Soviet economy and was asked to spend a year there, which he did. He got to know people higher up in the political area, including the Minister of Transportation. Towards the end of the current Seven Year Plan (they increased the time period because they never met the Five Year Plan goals), his friend was several million metric ton/miles short of his quota...a consequence that could lead to an all-expense paid vacation to Siberia. To meet his quota, he create long trains of gondola cars and loaded them with rock and ran the trains back and forth between Moscow and Vladivostok, thus meeting his quota. The communistic system has no concern about productivity, only the narrowly-defined quota.

As to farming, collective farms mostly produced staple crops (e.g., grains), but virtually all of the produce came from "assarts", which were small (e.g., about 1 acre) plots the peasants were allowed to farm for themselves. Without those plots, food supplies would have been far worse.

[miss marmelstein]

Yes, communism was a disaster. But I’m rereading the Little Prairie books by Laura Wilder and it’s amazing the joy they took from cooking - even when they were on the point of starving as in The Long Winter. But, I suppose they were free in mind and body, and that’s what makes the difference.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Well I would say that this lady is missing out on enjoying the finer things in life which everyone can do sometimes even if not every meal.

Mr. GG2 once said I could always make something good out of nothing. And I can do survival cooking. But until the grid goes down or we are standing in the lines for wilted beans (we won’t as we grow our own) I still like to do a really fine meal at least once or twice a week. Its chickensoup for the soul. :-)

[ShadowAce]

...that is anathema to a failed human being.

I miss editors.