Some months ago in Econ class, the discussion turned to various kinds of ownership (private, State, collective etc.). I generally argued for as cooperative a system of management as possible, but I did speak out against “a mass-collectivization program like Stalin did with the farms.” At this point, a guy previously unknown to me spoke up and said ”Hey, you shouldn’t criticize Stalin. That’s just way out of line.” My professor smiled amiably and changed the subject. To the minimum wage, and how big companies like Wal-Mart pay their employees very little even though they can afford much more. This elicited another cry of protest from Party Comrade, who vehemently defended Wal-Mart and their low wages.
Later, I asked around to see if that guy was kidding. No, apparently he really does like both old Joe Stalin and Wal-Mart.
I asked myself; how could this be? How could someone idealize Soviet Russia in its worst years and a huge multinational corporation? Then I realized: they’re not so different.
Stalin (independent of his sheer brutality) had a definite economic system. It entailed the entire economy of the USSR geared towards a set of well-defined and pre-set goals set one or even five years in advance. They would produce a certain number of cars, a certain tonnage of steel, a certain amount of grain etc. All industry was concentrated together, and all orders came from the ‘Supreme Soviet’ – that is, the Kremlin. There would be no local control and no deviation from the script.
This ‘central planning’ or ‘scientific socialism’ was, in fact, instrumental in helping Russia become an industrial power, but it proved clumsy and unworkable, considering (among other things) the size of the Soviet empire and the logistical impossibilities that entailed. America, for its part, prided itself on its culture of independent businesses and entrepreneurship.
Now, however, things have changed. At the time of Teddy Roosevelt’s ‘trust-busting’, five companies controlled 55% of the US meat industry. Now, three companies control 80% of it. Microsoft has a stranglehold on the software industry and laughs in the face of the DOJ. Chain stores, ‘big-box’ outlets, and all-purpose megastores are taking up a larger and larger part of the American economy and driving small businesses to extinction. Wal-Mart, with annual revenues of $218 billion, or about 2.5% of total GDP, is simply the biggest.
So… a small collection of incredibly huge, unelected, all-powerful cartels with top-down management controlling our economy and reacting with total indifference to the needs of their workers? Sounds like Stalinism to me.
