Fw: Goulash Socialism (was Bartok)

[rwan]

----- Original Message -----
From: rwan <r.wank at cable.a2000.nl>
To: Heikki Raudaskoski <c>
Cc: Heikki Raudaskoski <hraudask at sun3.oulu.fi>; Henry Musikar
<scuffling at hotmail.com>; <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2000 7:41 PM
Subject: Re: Goulash Socialism (was Bartok)


>
> > > > "Hungary is the funniest barrack in the socialist lager").
> > > > Heikki
> >
> > > This was a very well-known saying right from the mid-sixties on.
> > > Richard
> >
> > It finally begins to dawn on me... c-could it be that the term
> > "goulash socialism" wasn't invented by her, either??!!
> >
> > Heikki
>
>
> No, it certainly wasn't invented by her, either. The whole concept of "it
is being taken care of that every single person has enough to eat, including
meat ( Hungary is a very meat oriented country, by the by)" has very aptly
been named the "goulash socialism". The expression "fridge socialism" was
very much the same, but went one step further: the leftovers of your goulash
could be kept in the fridge that every family could afford to possess. Not
that it was entirely true: there was poverty, there wasn't even electricity
everywhere. On the other hand, there was the so-called hidden unemployment.
It went thus: the amount that state-owned companies could spend on loans,
wages and salaries was proportionate to the number of employees. Not
everyone received the same wage/salary and perks: unschooled labour got
one-fourth/fifth/sixth/etc. of what the "higher management" could earn. By
taking on another worker-comrade the total amount for wages for the company
increased with x Forint (the Hungarian currency) whereas the new employee
would only get  one third/fourth/etc. of that as a loan and the rest could
go to the higher echelons, what it sure did. For a great part this is why
there was no unemployment. To the contrary; there was goulash, many
refrigerators, lots of low-level job opportunities and being unemployed a
punishable crime. The crime was called "community-endangering
work-avoidance". Sounds real, doesn't it. Well, depending on who and on what
grounds defines what is real. Anyway, this was a period during which

a) small businesses were allowed to fill the gaps in the 5 Year Plans: food
production and distribution, the repair industry (shoes, television-sets,
plumbing, all sorts of mending and recycling, dental care, tyres and cars
and the likes.

b) the agricultural revival took place with villages coming alive, farmers,
who had previously  been pressed to become members of an "agricultural
co-operative", cultivating that little plot of their own, produced directly
for the market; having a few pigs and cows supplying the "goulash socialism"
ingredients or goose-liver by force-feeding . O, what a delicacy! (Well, I
eat it every now and then and I love it!) Some of those agricultural
co-operatives developed quite some extra-curricular activities as well:
industrial production of electronic components or of Christmas-decoration
and such, meaning anything that the state-moloch wasn't able to handle. And
supplying, both from those communal as from individual sources a lot of
vegetables and fruit. This, among other things, gave rise to the so called

c)  vegetable and fruit mafia: anything unseasonal such as strawberries in
February or tomatoes in March could cost five times as much as they would in
Western Europe with its highly developed global distribution system. With
the state's institution's inability to buy and distribute the produce of
those endeavouring farmers, there came a class of middle-men who decided
that control of the whole chain was preferable to that of only the piece in
the middle. Many an enterprising farmer or grocer was hit: "If you don't
want to co-operate with us our way, you won't operate at all!". Greenhouses
and stores were destroyed, but as this whole process took place outside the
state-controlled economic process, nobody could really have a clear picture.
The ones hit were often too scared to call in the help of the police, not
only because of being afraid of the retribution of those threatening them,
but just as well because they felt they were themselves operating outside
the system. And

d) Hungary built up an unprecedented debt vis a vis western banking
consortiums, the World Bank, the IMF and what not. Maybe the highest per
capita in what was then Eastern Europe.

This (d) was one of the reasons why the so-called "existing socialism" went
bankrupt, letterly and figuratively. And with it went the ideal of socialism
down the drain as well. Here History endeth, said Ms.Thatcher. Bartok says
otherwise. And so does/would Pynchon.

In any case, end of goulash socialism.

I have at this moment nothing more to say.

Richard