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> some tale of Margaret Thatcher strolling around London or someplace with some Soviet official That sounds so absurdly fictional that it can only have been a

> some tale of Margaret Thatcher strolling around London or someplace with some Soviet official That sounds so absurdly fictional that it can only have been a joke or bad propaganda. It fails the smell test not only for Thatcher to be strolling around London with a soviet official but for the soviet official to be oblivious to Thatcherism famous for its deregulation, union-busting and privatisation.

edblarney 10y ago
The anecdote could very well be true. The level of ignorance and arrogance behind the iron curtain in many ways was unbelievably beyond absurd. And remember Thatcher's 'deregulation' was all within the context of what was already a fairly capitalist system to begin with. When the Berlin wall fell, a lot of E. Germans crossed in to W. Germany - and when they entered the grocery stores, and saw all the amazing produce - fruit out of season, so many varieties of packaged goods - they were in shock and tears. They had been lied to their whole lives, told that they had 'the best' products and services and quite literally believed that their system was absolutely superior. This is the plebes mind you, I'm sure a lot of younger types had some idea of what they were missing out on. My friend grew up in Poland - they had 3 flavours of ice cream 'vanilla' 'chocolate' and 'pink'. And none of the other soviet states had more than either choco or vanilla - so they thought there were 'rich' compared to the other states. But they didn't fathom that other flavours even existed ...
- Gibbon1 10y ago
  This tickles something. I remember reading that after Khrushchev was forced out there were two factions in the Soviet government, one that wanted to keep the military based command economy and the other that wanted more focus on a consumer goods based economy. Brezhnev and the side that favored a military based economy won.
- jxramos 10y ago
  Just looked up the source, apparently it was during the 80s and was Mikhail Gorbachev, and I scrambled a bit of the details, and the author of the text too does not cite a source but refers to it as a popular story. I wonder if Google can dredge up something to substantiate it. "In the 1980s, the last premier of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, traveled to Great Britain and met British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. According to a popular story, when Gorbachev was touring with Thatcher, he was surprised to see how well off the British seemed to be. He asked Thatcher who made sure that the British people got fed. "No one," she told him. "The price system does that." The British people got fed far better than the subjects of the Soviet Union, who languished under a planner economy." pg 220 Invidivisble: James Robinson, Jay Richards
- jxramos 10y ago
  Apparently Thomas Sowell retells the tale too, but also as as a story "...is said to have asked..". I wonder where this tale originated from then. How an incredibly complex, high-tech economy can operate without any central direction is baffling to many. The last President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, is said to have asked British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher: "How do you see to it that people get food?" The answer was that she didn't. Prices did that. Moreover, the British people were better fed than people in the Soviet Union, even though the British have not produced enough food to feed themselves in more than a century. Prices bring them food from other countries. https://books.google.com/books?id=oVaNBQAAQBAJ&lpg=PT21&ots=hbnYxli5pv&dq=mikhail%20gorbachev%20margaret%20thatcher%20British%20feed&pg=PT21#v=onepage&q=mikhail%20gorbachev%20margaret%20thatcher%20British%20feed&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=oVaNBQAAQBAJ&lpg=PT21&ots=...

edblarney 10y ago

The anecdote could very well be true. The level of ignorance and arrogance behind the iron curtain in many ways was unbelievably beyond absurd. And remember Thatcher's 'deregulation' was all within the context of what was already a fairly capitalist system to begin with. When the Berlin wall fell, a lot of E. Germans crossed in to W. Germany - and when they entered the grocery stores, and saw all the amazing produce - fruit out of season, so many varieties of packaged goods - they were in shock and tears. They had been lied to their whole lives, told that they had 'the best' products and services and quite literally believed that their system was absolutely superior. This is the plebes mind you, I'm sure a lot of younger types had some idea of what they were missing out on. My friend grew up in Poland - they had 3 flavours of ice cream 'vanilla' 'chocolate' and 'pink'. And none of the other soviet states had more than either choco or vanilla - so they thought there were 'rich' compared to the other states. But they didn't fathom that other flavours even existed ...

Gibbon1 10y ago
This tickles something. I remember reading that after Khrushchev was forced out there were two factions in the Soviet government, one that wanted to keep the military based command economy and the other that wanted more focus on a consumer goods based economy. Brezhnev and the side that favored a military based economy won.
jxramos 10y ago
Just looked up the source, apparently it was during the 80s and was Mikhail Gorbachev, and I scrambled a bit of the details, and the author of the text too does not cite a source but refers to it as a popular story. I wonder if Google can dredge up something to substantiate it. "In the 1980s, the last premier of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, traveled to Great Britain and met British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. According to a popular story, when Gorbachev was touring with Thatcher, he was surprised to see how well off the British seemed to be. He asked Thatcher who made sure that the British people got fed. "No one," she told him. "The price system does that." The British people got fed far better than the subjects of the Soviet Union, who languished under a planner economy." pg 220 Invidivisble: James Robinson, Jay Richards
jxramos 10y ago
Apparently Thomas Sowell retells the tale too, but also as as a story "...is said to have asked..". I wonder where this tale originated from then. How an incredibly complex, high-tech economy can operate without any central direction is baffling to many. The last President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, is said to have asked British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher: "How do you see to it that people get food?" The answer was that she didn't. Prices did that. Moreover, the British people were better fed than people in the Soviet Union, even though the British have not produced enough food to feed themselves in more than a century. Prices bring them food from other countries. https://books.google.com/books?id=oVaNBQAAQBAJ&lpg=PT21&ots=hbnYxli5pv&dq=mikhail%20gorbachev%20margaret%20thatcher%20British%20feed&pg=PT21#v=onepage&q=mikhail%20gorbachev%20margaret%20thatcher%20British%20feed&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=oVaNBQAAQBAJ&lpg=PT21&ots=...