[lbo-talk] The SMB in a socialist economy?

[SA]

wrobert at uci.edu wrote:


>     The mistaken premise behind this argument is that the USSR got rid of
> the commodity.  I don't even think Soviet economists would make that
> argument.  robert wood
>   

Hmm. In the Dictionary of Marxist Thought entry for "Commodity," it says 
commodities are "products produced for a system of exchange." Was the 
Soviet economy a system of exchange? In any event, the way I originally 
phrased the issue, before slipping into a shorthand version, was: 
"Commodity exchange was abolished (at least as the dominant form of 
economic activity) in the Soviet Union."

It's true that goods were exchanged, despite the fact that the exchange 
of goods was frowned upon by official dogma. Why do you think that is?

SA