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Soviet Union [USSR] The Logic and Goals of Consumer Production
Increased availability of consumer goods was an important part
of perestroika. A premise of that program was that workers
would raise their productivity in response to incentive wages only
if their money could buy a greater variety of consumer products.
This idea arose when the early use of incentive wages did not have
the anticipated effect on labor productivity because purchasing
power had not improved. According to the theory, all Soviet
industry would benefit from diversification from Group A into Group
B because incentives would have real meaning. Therefore, the
Twelfth Five-Year Plan called for a 5.4 percent rise in nonfood
consumer goods and a 5.4 to 7 percent rise in consumer services.
Both figures were well above rates in the overall economic plan.
Consumer goods targeted included radios, televisions, sewing
machines, washing machines, refrigerators, printed matter, and
knitwear. The highest quotas were set for the first three
categories. Although in 1987 refrigerators, washing machines,
televisions, tape recorders, and furniture were the consumer
categories making the greatest production gains compared with the
previous year, only furniture met its yearly quota. Furthermore,
industrial planners have tried to use light industries to raise the
industrial contributions of such economic regions as the
Transcaucasus and Central Asia, which have large populations but
lack the raw materials for heavy manufacturing.
Data as of May 1989
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