One of the very wise things the Soviet government did, from
its earliest years, was to reason that if the USSR covered
one-sixth of the earth's last surface, it should have something
like one-sixth of the natural resources. In consequence, a superb
system of training on geology and in prospecting was put in place
and maintained throughout. The result was the discovery of damned
near everything. To this day, U.S. subs and aircraft are largely
made of light metals imported from the USSR!
So lack of resources had nothing whatever to do with the
collapse of socialism.
wILLIAM mANDEL
Elmer Lightman wrote:
>
> I was a regular in Bill Mandel's KPFA audience for years. Taped the program
> for it's rare information. And I admire his mind. Coming upon the current
> dialogue, and the evolution in his views, I haven't seen addressed the
> answer to three points for which I've always faulted capitalism:
> 1) Waste. The enormous waste of resources in the production of redundant
> consumer products, the over production (the new proliferation "99c stores"
> to at least sell the left over stuff to someone rather than destroy it, is
> small relief--why didn't it cost 99cents in the first place?)
> 2) Immediate profit over any real interest in conserving dwindling
> resources for any future there might be. A society that planned for the
> future of the human race is what I'd hoped we'd get from the socialists, but
> did they even have that ethic?
> 3) Wasn't the Soviet Union's problem that it didn't have access to the
> world's resources the way the U.S. did (and secured with it's military)?
> Wasn't that a key reason USSR couldn't compete, notwithstanding any accuracy
> of the other reasons Bill gives? And for that matter isn't the lack of
> access to all the world's resources (and of course various social issues not
> to the direct point of this thread) the reason inhabitants of countries like
> Haiti emmigrate to the U.S.? The goodies are here, not the least of reasons
> being that whatever is there has been brought here to manufacture U.S.
> goodies out of. So: more goodies here, poverty there, people come here.
>
> Elmer LIghman
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