...
> Soviet system rapidly became a system that was not able to work well --
> one might say that it was a degenerate form of Marxist idealism (in this
> one point, I agree with Trotsky -- though he put it in slightly
> different form, and blamed the Stalinist bureaucracy: i.e., he thought
> that, if he, Trotsky, had somehow been on top of things, he would have
> managed it better).
Well, he had a big ego, but he gave a decent
marxist analysis that fitted all the consequent
stalinist regimes. What you fail to mention is the
lack of democracy. Making insane plans that depended
more on peasant burocrat imagination than data collected
about needs and capacities, made even more
waste than the burocracy and corruption, which,
lets face it, doing business all over in
its more sophisticated way in the more subtle
capitalist (or are they called well developed?)
countries. The same lack of democracy,
lack of cooperation and undercover insanity
however, will lead eventually the same result.
It couldn't have been done "well" in Russia
as the nominal political democracy did
not bring the real thing, capitalism
doesn't work (to satisfy human needs)
however slowly or fast you do it.
(innuendo purely coincidental!)
Eva
...
>
> The moral of this tale *IS* of value to us. Who was the genius who
> believed that capitalism could be introduced easily into Russia (I mean,
> not "casino capitalism," but the market economy combined with law and at
> least minimal behavioral norms). These people had spent years
> perfecting their skills in screwing the system --- as our Cherokee
> friend has commented, what gave us the almighty gall to think that they
> would change their habits, believe that we had come to give them the
> benefits of our economic and political system, and that they could
> therefore stop playing their games. The only thing that we did in
> changing the Russian economy (as distinct from changes that *MAY* have
> occurred -- or may yet occur —— in the political system) is make this
> kind of economic behavior more lucrative, often at our expense via the
> IMF and other economic aid channels.
>
> Saul Silverman
> (in a cynical mood)
>
