Show SHOPPING IN RUSSIA it would be a good thing if every american in ill this er era in which the free enterprise system is under constant attack from within and without could pa pay y a visit lisit to a retail store in russia or one of the other communist countries that would provide an all excellent pi practical test of the difference between a free competitive economy and a controlled totalitarian 1 economy in ili the russian store the visitor would find that all goods were rigidly rationed the average citizen is allowed to buy just enough to live at a subsist subsistence subsistent ene e level prices of course are fixed b by y the government at whatever level the masters of the nation desire and save for a few such staples as bread and potatoes the prices are always extremely high in terms of the earning power of the masses high prices are a deliberate communist device by which earnings a are immediately siphoned back into the coffers of the state there is no compe competition in our understanding of that word the government controls everything and directly owns practically everything all the way from farm and factor factory y to the store even the most modest luxuries are unknown and many of the necessities are constantly in short supply so that even meager 3 legal rations cannot be filled contrast this with those show windows of america our retail stores small and large the difference is literally incredible only free enterprise can produce abundance and high living standards |