"They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work."

[socialshockwave]

-Soviet proverb.

Discuss?

[seabeyond]

1. i have always worked hard for my paycheck. and luckily, i have always had good employers

i dont think i could ever be proud of doing shoddy work or taking advantage of a paycheck

[Imajika]

2. It's always the result of a command and control economy..

n/t

[socialshockwave]

3. Sadly this is what happens when you set up a socialist style economy.

-Innovation lacks. No one has the drive to do anything or look for any new products.
-Rising unemployment. Nationalization of business causes prospective investment to run the other way.
-Bad quality. Who cares, they get paid their 5 roubles an hour no matter what they make!
-NKVD/KGB. Gotta support the Dear Ladder.

[bengalherder]

7. Um, Soviet Russia wasn't socialist...

It was communist which is somewhat different.

[moondust]

8. Decent incentives

would probably solve a lot of those. I think one mistake some socialistic and communistic economies of the past made is that they relied too heavily on altruism and authoritarianism to motivate people and not enough on rewards. Some people will be glad to work for "a better quality of life for everybody" (or whatever) but that's just too abstract for a lot of other people.

[enough]

4. On wall street, however, it's "They pay us, and we pretend to work."

A much better deal.

[Capitalocracy]

6. And on main street...

the harder we work, the more they cut our pay.

[hootinholler]

5. "There's no news in the truth and no truth in the news"

Referring to Pravda and the other paper that I can't recall the name of.

[SheilaT]

9. That was pretty accurate in certain parts

of the soviet economy.

I visited in 1976, and everywhere I went there were at least two people doing the job that in the U.S. would have only taken one employee.

I remember doing something -- changing money, maybe, or buying something in a store, and one of the two clerks in front of me was doing whatever it was, and the other one, sitting next to her, was simply chatting to the worker non-stop.

Oh, and buying stuff in stores was quite interesting. You'd decide what you wanted to purchase, and let the clerk at that counter know. She'd write up some kind of a slip which you would take to a cashier, who took your money, and gave you another slip in return. Then you'd go to a third place where you'd trade in the slip for whatever it was you'd bought. And no one ever hustled very much either. It was all in slow motion.