Word: gosplan
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Department of Energy or the Pentagon. Of course, there is a problem. Public organizations work less efficiently than do private ones, which are eliminated if they are not competitive." The law of the land for the Soviet economy is the national Five-Year Plan. The State Planning Committee (GOSPLAN) allocates all investment capital, sets every price and production goal and determines all foreign trade. The plan, which sets policy for some 350,000 enterprises, affects every Soviet citizen. Lawyers must try their quota of cases, barbers must shear so many heads and taxi drivers must log so many miles...
Examples of Soviet-style conservatism are widespread. The Soviet chemical industry was reportedly unable to replace corrosion-prone cast iron pipes with more up-to-date plastic piping because no factory could be persuaded to make the lighter product. Reason: pipe production quotas are set by GOSPLAN in tons, and any factory that switched from cast iron to plastic pipe output would immediately fall behind in its production quotas...