In “Growth of Industrial Production in the Soviet Union,” a chapter in a 1962 book published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, Nutter and co-authors Israel Borenstein and Adam Kaufman wrote, “Soviet industrial development, as we pointed out much earlier, has concentrated on economic growth of a limited list of products; US development, on proliferation of products and qualitative improvements.” And that makes all the difference. The comfort, the fit, the design, and the size mix of Soviet shoes were so out of sync with what people needed and wanted that they were willing to stand in line for hours to buy the occasional pair, usually imported, that they liked. As Figure 1.8 of the report shows, the average income of the bottom 10 percent of people in the countries with the least economic freedom was $1,255.
Author: January 8, 2026
Published at: 2026-01-08 00:00:00
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