The Resurrection of Titanic. Mark Boykov
work quotas and begins to over fulfil them. The administration of the factory also insists on the changes and revises work quotas and rates.
In some places, it happened more often, in others – less often. Sometimes this appeared to be reasonable, at times – severe. But this practice, which became widespread, was the detonator for the Novocherkassk massacre in 1962 when the demonstration of workers was shot. The overall tension was bound to explode at the particular place, which had focused negative actions. That's how the element of protests and the force of arms burst into the economy.
It seemed that it was time for economists to think. But no, scientists, who serve the policy, say almost in unison: 'Wages should not grow faster than the productivity of work'. In fact, they just confuse productivity of work with mechanical production and tend to get better results due to the increasing tension of work by imposing wage cuts.
Reducing wages, they encourage the person to the intensification of work, and not to increase of productivity. Even Lenin wrote: 'We witnessed how in the 1980s our manufacturers outrageously oppressed workers, how they transformed penalties into means of lowering workers' wages, not confining themselves to lowering only rates. The oppression of the capitalists over the workers reached its peak'(1). Like this: ideological heirs of Lenin, who were considered to be scientists, chose the way of manufacturers of the late XIX century. As a result, actual impairment of work began, often causing stress and nervous breakdowns among the workers.
However, this also affected the quality of products. Time, like water, is physically incompressible. If the work quota increases by the same time unit without any technical improvement, relying only on the motional acceleration, then, regardless the growth of the skill at the given intensification of work, sooner or later there will be the limit to human capabilities, and the worker will be forced to either sacrifice personal interests or seek another solution. And on a subconscious level, the more the worker is 'speeded up', the more careful he/she has to be. The worker skips something in the work, leaves something unfinished in the product. As a result, while the number of products increases, its quality decreases.
But this is not a loss. In society, as in nature, nothing comes from nowhere and nothing does not disappear anywhere without a trace. It is a forced, hidden form of consumption of the product before its production. If the worker lost something in income, then he/she, naturally, left something unfinished at work. To increase the work quota the worker 'paid in' work saving. The worker provided more products, but of lower quality.
And still the worker suffered more. Walking out the door of the checkpoint, the worker turned into the buyer of that same, partially consumed product, which he/she certainly did not like. Lower quality led to the corresponding increase in the deficit. And extra earning, which the worker was receiving for the exceeding of the work quota, he/she was forced to give then, as an overpayment, to the speculator, to the state that was increasing the price of the quality product. Or it could be useful and helpful in acquiring the desired goods to people.
The life of people did not improve directly – from work. At the state warehouses, a great number of useless goods was accumulating. Depreciating, these goods were becoming enormous losses of social work, which, in turn, were doubling, trebling because people, who had manufactured this product, were also getting wages, bonuses, and funds. The country was reposing on the descending number of truly valuable workers. But the more people worked, the poorer they became since the lion's share of work simply circled down the drain. Reports about the overfulfilment of plans were coming from everywhere, and still there were empty store shelves. But if only…
There was a huge turnover of staff, and people, repeatedly switching jobs, worked not where they were attracted by the abilities but where they were pushed by the needs. And the country, which was building the communism, ceased to enjoy the work.
The person was under the pressure of consumer compression. Being convinced of the impossibility to earn the desired wealth by honest, straight work, the person sought to all kinds of under-the-counter, shadow, devious ways. The person did not shun false reporting, fraud, and even theft. He/she began hazing with the master, the foreperson, the controller, and other useful people, preferring career progress instead of improving performance the work: grades, positions, ranks. The spirit of utilitarianism, mercenariness, and venality penetrated the person's relations. Everything fair and good in this atmosphere was under the stress of alienation, the pressure of hostility, the aversion, and the rejection. Socialist ideals were hollowing out. Revolution, winning seemingly in the name of workers, began to deviate from its objectives and to suppress its roots.
In the meantime, the future petrels of liberalism, such as Burbulis and Gaidar, Shatalin and Yavlinsky, Livshits and Chubais, Yasin and Gavriil Popov, were making their careers. /They are making their careers all their lives. From the first class at school! Fear of such well-wishers!/. They consider the economy in isolation from the person and out of alignment with him/her as a closed, self-sufficing system, as a thing in itself. They defend master's and doctoral dissertations /certainly, on the basis of 'Marxism'/ with the innocent purpose to sanctify the economic robbery of the party, state, and academic elite, mixed in the ecstasy of the privileged consumption. The practice of raising work quotas and impairment of work is driving the economy to a standstill but is not questioned.
However, the person is being driven in an even deeper impasse. When work quotas were increasing, and rates were decreasing; thus, the obligations were naturally rising, becoming fantastic. The work force underwent the accelerated wear and tear. Everyday tiredness, accumulating, adopted the chronic value. This value, in turn, accelerated and exacerbated the daily value, imposing on top of one another not in 4–5, but in an hour or two. Only illness and alcohol could help to escape from this vicious circle.
Alcohol, however, is easily converted into illness. First, extra earning is spent on alcohol. Then, when this becomes a habit, wages are also spent on it. When drinking turns into drunkenness, even wages are not enough. Inhibition of substantiality of the person turns into his/her destruction. It is wrong when they say that drinking is an expression of social protest.
In fact, when work quotas are increasing from time to time, the production takes so much energy that by the end of the shift the person is completely exhausted. An interesting meeting, housework, time for sports or children, reading a book or going to the theatre – all this requires energy and desire. But there is none. They are suppressed, muted, and crushed. The more worthlessly the production is organized, the more physical and mental energy it takes from the person. And, therefore, it also rules over the person outside the factory.
Once the person leaves work completely exhausted and does not want anything, except doing nothing or a bad way of spending time, this suggests that his/her essence is depleted. And alcohol seems to be the simplest way to 'rise from the ashes'. And to feel oneself a person again, he/she… paradoxically kills this in himself/herself.
Alas, 'drinking does not kill humanity in a human being'. It only completes what badly organized production does to the person. That production, which forces the person to make the product worse than he/she can, compels to act contrary to conscience and abilities, encourages the unusual behaviour. Thus, the reduction of product quality secretly expresses the destruction of human nature.
Therefore, in direct proportion to the raising work quotas, drinking is spreading around the country. And when under Gorbachev a struggle with drinking began/certainly without understanding its reasons, and using command and volitional methods/, it only added fuel to the flame, caused anger of the masses, and made one question the mental abilities of the leaders. The system is doomed and slowly dies if the foundations of humanity begin to crumble. It has always been this way in critical periods of history.
To change something for the better, one should first understand the reason why it has become bad.
It all started in the difficult, post-war period, under Stalin. As the war-torn economy was recovering, work quotas and rates were changing in an effort to fill the market with goods as soon as possible. However, in Stalin's time, this practice was accompanied by annual price reductions on goods of mass-market, i.e. the increased work quota was returned to the worker in the form of increased consumption of the product that naturally balanced its relationship with the state. With the death of Joseph Vissarionovich price reduction was