4 ms·

Is there any evidence for this story?

dragonwriter 2y ago
Are you asking if there is evidence that the described story was told in Soviet Russia, or are you asking if there is evidence that the obvious parable is an actual factual account?
- mcculley 2y ago
  I would like to know if there was a shoe factory in Soviet Russia that produced superfluous shoes for children during a shortage of shoes for adults. I am familiar with the problems of centrally planned economies and with the Soviet economies in general. I am wondering if there was an actual instance of this happening with shoes. These memes tend to propagate and mutate through the minds of those who are keen to believe things without evidence.
  - krisoft 2y ago
    “ In Soviet Russia there is a story” This is explicitly labeled as a story. It is a parable used to illustrate a point. Do you also demand evidence of the boy who cried wolf? Or little red riding hood who strayed from the safe path? These are the same kind of things. I would understand your question maybe if the article would purport the existence of the shoe factory. But it doesn’t. And that is not the point of it.
    - mcculley 2y ago
      I am not demanding anything. I am very curious for real stories from the Soviet Union relevant to economics.
      - stickfigure 2y ago
        Here's a whole youtube channel for you: https://www.youtube.com/@UshankaShow https://www.youtube.com/@UshankaShow
    - tdeck 2y ago
      Half the comments here are talking about this story as if it's a piece of factual evidence that proves an ideological point, so it seems valuable to ask if the story actually happened.
  - SR2Z 2y ago
    > These memes tend to propagate and mutate through the minds of those who are keen to believe things without evidence. There is definitely evidence of shoe shortages in the Soviet Union - enough that it's a running joke. A quick Google turned up this post: https://www.econlib.org/archives/2009/09/soviet_shoes.html https://www.econlib.org/archives/2009/09/soviet_shoes.html which cites this book: https://www.amazon.com/Dismantling-Utopia-Information-Ended-Soviet/dp/1566630991?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254265970&sr=1-1 https://www.amazon.com/Dismantling-Utopia-Information-Ended-... I'm not sure if there will be better evidence, given the USSR's propensity to pad their stats.
    - mcculley 2y ago
      This is great. Thanks.
TacticalCoder 2y ago
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jccalhoun 2y ago
I don't know about Soviet manufacturing but there are a couple pics going around of people claiming their pair of shoes were made in two different countries: https://www.reddit.com/r/Sneakers/comments/ho1tj8/my_left_and_right_sneakers_were_manufactured_in/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Sneakers/comments/ho1tj8/my_left_an... https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/6iewhc/the_right_and_left_foot_are_made_in_different/ https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/6iewhc/t... Commenters claim it is done so that people in the factories won't steal shoes since they can't get both left and right shoes.
- themaninthedark 2y ago
  The first link has two different color insoles present, they might be different productions runs from different factories. The second link has labels stuck to the insole but they look like off a hand held label printer, not the mandated COO label so I am a little skeptical.

Are you asking if there is evidence that the described story was told in Soviet Russia, or are you asking if there is evidence that the obvious parable is an actual factual account?

mcculley 2y ago
I would like to know if there was a shoe factory in Soviet Russia that produced superfluous shoes for children during a shortage of shoes for adults. I am familiar with the problems of centrally planned economies and with the Soviet economies in general. I am wondering if there was an actual instance of this happening with shoes. These memes tend to propagate and mutate through the minds of those who are keen to believe things without evidence.
- krisoft 2y ago
  “ In Soviet Russia there is a story” This is explicitly labeled as a story. It is a parable used to illustrate a point. Do you also demand evidence of the boy who cried wolf? Or little red riding hood who strayed from the safe path? These are the same kind of things. I would understand your question maybe if the article would purport the existence of the shoe factory. But it doesn’t. And that is not the point of it.
  - mcculley 2y ago
    I am not demanding anything. I am very curious for real stories from the Soviet Union relevant to economics.
    - stickfigure 2y ago
      Here's a whole youtube channel for you: https://www.youtube.com/@UshankaShow https://www.youtube.com/@UshankaShow
  - tdeck 2y ago
    Half the comments here are talking about this story as if it's a piece of factual evidence that proves an ideological point, so it seems valuable to ask if the story actually happened.
- SR2Z 2y ago
  > These memes tend to propagate and mutate through the minds of those who are keen to believe things without evidence. There is definitely evidence of shoe shortages in the Soviet Union - enough that it's a running joke. A quick Google turned up this post: https://www.econlib.org/archives/2009/09/soviet_shoes.html https://www.econlib.org/archives/2009/09/soviet_shoes.html which cites this book: https://www.amazon.com/Dismantling-Utopia-Information-Ended-Soviet/dp/1566630991?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254265970&sr=1-1 https://www.amazon.com/Dismantling-Utopia-Information-Ended-... I'm not sure if there will be better evidence, given the USSR's propensity to pad their stats.
  - mcculley 2y ago
    This is great. Thanks.

TacticalCoder 2y ago

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jccalhoun 2y ago

I don't know about Soviet manufacturing but there are a couple pics going around of people claiming their pair of shoes were made in two different countries: https://www.reddit.com/r/Sneakers/comments/ho1tj8/my_left_and_right_sneakers_were_manufactured_in/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Sneakers/comments/ho1tj8/my_left_an... https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/6iewhc/the_right_and_left_foot_are_made_in_different/ https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/6iewhc/t... Commenters claim it is done so that people in the factories won't steal shoes since they can't get both left and right shoes.

themaninthedark 2y ago
The first link has two different color insoles present, they might be different productions runs from different factories. The second link has labels stuck to the insole but they look like off a hand held label printer, not the mandated COO label so I am a little skeptical.