Old definition is sorta right after all
I've constantly slammed the misuse of old dictionary definitions for political tendencies. Conservative and liberal no longer have any meaning at all. Socialism no longer means 'state control of the means of production' ... But wait. Yes it does, from a different angle.

Under Stalin the definition was precisely accurate. The Politburo decided everything, set quotas for size 8 shoes and size 9 shoes and size 10 shoes, produced limos for the commissars and bicycles for the proles. Result: scarce and low-quality consumer products for the masses.

The precision softened after Stalin died, but the basic system remained.

Just for fun, this is an official stamp from the manual of the late-Soviet Электронный конструктор, which I bought and reviewed here. Everything had similar OTK (Technical Control Division) stamps. Note the personal signature of a bureaucrat! Full employment was the GOOD part of the USSR system.

Stalin's USSR provided money for wages, equipment and maintenance directly to State-owned farms and factories, and ordered them to turn out the correct mix of products. Farms and factories generated real excess value, which was returned to the State as taxes.

= = = = =

In the post-switchover USSA we have returned to the Politburo, with an added layer that provides single-knob control. It's a neat hydraulic trick, saving considerable work for the Chosen.

In Bernanke's USSA, the central bank provides free money to State-Approved Corporations, who are then free to use it for gambling in the central bank's casino, where they can win even more free money just by being Approved. This is the only added value, and it's so abundantly poured into the Approved Corporations that they no longer need to generate real value through farms and factories. The megagallons of counterfeit value fill the pipes, leaving no room for real value.

A quaint remnant of the old private sector still survives, but it has to operate on narrow margins without investment or savings, burdened and menaced by a huge load of regulations and litigation. Because no real value is being generated anywhere, the proles are no longer getting paid for helping to make real value, and no longer able to save the few pennies they earn.

Result: Limos for the Commissars, flip-flops for the proles. Walmart shelves look a LOT like the shelves of 1960 Russian stores. Lots of empty spaces, scarce low-quality products with very little variety. It gets worse every month. Less variety, lower quality.

Labels: Make or break, switchover

  ¶ 12:19 PM