Kevin D Williamson on socialism’s comedy economics:
Prices in markets are not arbitrary — they are reflections of how real people actually value certain goods and services in the real world. Arbitrarily changing the dollar numbers attached to those preferences does not change the underlying reality any more than trimming Cleveland off a map of the United States actually makes Cleveland disappear… Free markets are a reflection of what people actually value at a particular time relative to the other things that they might also value. Real people simply want things that are different from what the planners want them to want, a predicament that can be solved only through violence and the threat of violence.
One of these.
And do take a few minutes to watch the footage of a Moscow supermarket circa 1990. Even now, it’s a little shocking.
The contrast between the stark state of that 1990 Soviet supermarket and a 2015 Russian supermarket – like, say, the big “Matrix”* chain – is stunning.
The difference? Matrix is a private corporation. Whatever other political and economic problems Russians might face these days, shedding the state-planned economy of communism has transformed the consumer’s life for the better.
* There’s a “Real Russia” video on the web you can find fairly easily that will take you through a typical Matrix supermarket out in the provinces.
Wow, don’t show that Moscow supermarket clip to our “sustainability” commies they’d all drown in a pool of their own saliva drooling over the bleak austerity they wish on all of us.
“Real people simply want things that are different from what the planners want them to want, a predicament that can be solved only through violence and the threat of violence”
Yup, that’s how yer hardcore commie economy operates Mandrake – we are not too far off that mark here with marketing boards, government owned marketing monopolies, supply chain taxes and the impending Carbon taxing which is there to discourage us from purchasing certain things which are deemed bad or sinful by our corrupt/perverse governors.
Sustainability = commie economics
Kind of looks like Costco to me.
JJM and Occam, exactly. This is the utopia that many NDP Marxist/Eco warriors want here.
Based on what my uncle saw in 1982 in a village store near the city of Orenburg, these people in the video actually had a great shopping experience.
You can get your eyes tested and buy glasses at Costco.
Replace the cheap travertine floor with Lino
Cut the number of products to two, Chips and relish
Put in about 5 employee s. Three sitting on the counter and you could have a northern Alberta reserve store.
I forgot to add that in 2008 and again in 2010 we saw in both Russia and Ukraine western style grocery stores with many different food products on the shelves.
Other than we had shorter lines, it reminds me of the pre self-service Alberta liquor Control Board stores where they tried to make you feel dirty buying booze. It is still amazing how 9 of 10 provinces still have liquor stores belonging to the collective. In Alberta they are just stores that anyone with a desire can open, mind you our Bolshevik government will have to see if they can screw that one up.
I find it hard to feel smug when I watched this because that is the direction we are also heading. We are only one major recession away and there is no way to avoid it.
http://demonocracy.info/infographics/usa/us_government_budget/us_govt_budget.html
Every bureaucratic interference to the freedom of the people and free enterprise nudges us a little closer to a socialist utopia that only benefits a ruling class that is never bound by the same rules and regulations as the “little” people. Every blue state without exception is failing, 46 million on food stamps, a real unemployment rate of about 23% , a EPA that takes pride in destroying industry and a dollar that will soon be eliminated as world currency. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Don’t even question the trillions in debt or the over 100 trillion in unfunded liabilities which is impossible to reconcile. I could go on for another page but that would take all the fun out of the day. Canada is still joined at the hip with the USA so other than a few months delay we would follow them over the same cliff. We now have failed states trying to shore up other failed states with the same logic that gave us Detroit.
http://www.capoliticalreview.com/capoliticalnewsandviews/guv-brown-wants-california-taxpayers-to-bail-out-oregon-obamacare/
It’s past the point of if things come crashing down. We are now looking at when.
Vote Hillary in 2016. Half the nation considers her the most competent in the land. Stock up on dry dog food. By law it must be fit for human consumption, and remember that climate change is the biggest threat we face on this planet. Gawd, but the leadership intellect is depressing. These are still the good times. Enjoy them while they last and ignore the black clouds on the horizon. Just climate change.
Whenever a remotely conservative government is elected, the usual suspects riot in opposition to “austerity”, meaning potential cutbacks in government involvement in the economy. It appears from the video that austerity is inevitable. Either the governments practice it, or eventually the citizenry will.
Fairness for all Russians!!!
“Sustainability = commie economics”
Central Planning = Forced Rationing
Rationing is always sustainable, supply needs profit as motivation.