Old Soviet joke: "I want to sign up for the waiting list for a car. How long is it?" / "Precisely ten years from today." / "Morning or evening?" / "Why, what d

Old Soviet joke: "I want to sign up for the waiting list for a car. How long is it?" / "Precisely ten years from today." / "Morning or evening?" / "Why, what difference does it make?" / "The plumber's due in the morning". The easiest way to get spare parts was simply to steal them. Cars were frequently stolen off the street and stripped. Factory workers would smuggle in old parts, fit them to cars on the production line and smuggle out the new parts. The spares that were available invariably ended up being funnelled off into the black market. See also the Soviet black market for blown light bulbs: http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/02/markets-in-everything-hardly-anything.html http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/02/mar...