>From my friend Sasha re: Alexander's question.
Well, I knew people who got university education and defected into the working class in order to earn enough to support their families. Back then I was also toying with that idea but finally decided in favor of taking to translating as my second profession. But I would not say the situation really discouraged people from going to universities. Two factors were most important: 1. Enrolling in a higher educational institution effectively meant exemption from military service 2. Being a factory worker is not a very exciting way of life :-)).
Of course, the wage bias in favor of factory workers was widely debated among the people as well as in books, films and media, however, the criticism was very slight. For example, I remember a novel where the main character says: "Being a scientist is great because you come to work only to create and enjoy the process of creation, and they even pay you some money for that."
Regards S.K.
>Hi Sasha!
>
A friend had the following question (I sent him what you wrote about
>Soviet working class income). Could you answer? Thanks (PS. He lives in
>Brazil.)
>
>-Hi Chris, that is exactly the information I have about USSR. The Brezhnev
>years were a kind of Golden Age for the Soviets, and looking to Maddison
>data on PPP GDP per capita, by 1973, the USSR had more or less 40% of the
>per capita GDP of the USA, which, would be the relative situation of South
>Korea today (and btw, poor South Koreans, a minuscule 2 room apartment in
>Seoul costs as much as a good 3 room apartment in the city I live, so...)
>-Still, it´s possible that poor consumer goods quality and relative
>scarcity
>mad the Soviet citizen somewhat upset, as there weren´t enough goods to
>fulfill the needs of works whose wages were improving. I think Wotjek made
>a very reasonable point on the prices distortions of EE economies
>-However, I have another question. To what extent the practice of paying
>more to workers, in relation to people with higher education discouraged
>people
>to go to the universities? Why to spend 4-6 years more in a university to
>earn 30% of a factory worker? I´m not talking about abstract notions of
>fairness
>but about the role of personal incentives in a socialist economy. To what
>extent
>this practice wasn´t part of a broader economic policy bias toward heavy
>industry
>that may have contributed to the failure in the transition to a IT based
>economy?
>
> Alexandre
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