Word: kaiser
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Some notable laggards are makers of petrochemicals and oil refiners. Kaiser Industries Corp. Vice President Louis Oppenheim says there is "some reluctance" in the steel industry to expand capacity substantially. The key reason, he asserts, is that rising costs of labor, energy and raw materials, plus the industry's inability to raise prices fast enough, result in "a return on investment that is too low." Another factor in the reluctance of businessmen to spend more is the still high cost of long-term borrowing. Says Litton Industries Financial Affairs Vice President Joseph T. Casey: "In our spending outlook...
Both authors agree that the Soviet system works-miserably. Russia, writes Kaiser, is a superpower that lacks even a basic network of good roads. The Soviets have exploited the greatest advantage of their authoritarian system in concentrating vast resources upon narrow goals-defense and space, for example-but otherwise have built an economy that is preposterously inefficient and corrupt. Industrial plant directors bent upon fulfilling the Plan adulterate their products to increase quantity. Pills come out at half-strength. A canning engineer admits: "If we add less sugar to the jam, we can produce more canned goods and meet...
...unprivileged get along with what for Americans seems an odd docility. But both Kaiser and Smith point out that for the majority of Soviet citizens, the minimal comforts of housing -however cramped (10 ft. sq. per person, by Lenin's edict)-and a regular diet-however spare (sausage, potatoes, cabbage)-are better than they had before. Especially to those older Russians who lived through the hunger of the war. conditions now seem acceptable. There are even hints of affluence -a few self-service stores, prepackaged goods. Some citizens feel rich enough to afford wigs, pets and facelifts. The wait...
...Kaiser and Smith are at their best with the unique character of Russians - their glazed and hostile public faces that dissolve in private in almost alarming conviviality. Their sentimentality and love of children - the obsessive way in which a babushka watches a child in a playground to make sure its rump never touches the snow. Their alcoholism - vodka bottles come with tear-off metal tops, and the bottle, once opened, must be finished. Their chilling fear of strangers and even friends - the result of long experience with informers...
Like the Weather. Corruption and mistrust inhabit any society. But, as Kaiser says, "Russia really is different." It missed the Renaissance and Enlightenment. It draws upon a deep tradition of authoritarianism, and half expects it. In any case, Russians may profoundly fear the alternative, which they see as anarchy. To many Soviet citizens, the U.S., with its unemployment, racial troubles and apparently frenetic politics, is paying too high a price in instability. Oppression in the Soviet Union comes, at last, to be an expected natural force, like the weather. For Russians mistrust individualism. As a people they have a massive...