Hemphill: What would old Soviet Union think of Bernie Sanders?
Years ago, before I joined a media group for a tour of the Russia of the old Soviet Union, I listened to a Russian lawyer’s opinion of the disadvantages of the United States. The discourse was in a Rancho Bernardo living room:
“You have too many cars, you should walk more – it is healthier. Another is products like tooth paste...you must have 20 brands on the shelf when you only need one or two!”
I correctly put those comments down as the lawyer making excuses for what we knew to be a scarcity of everything in Russia, trying to make a virtue of necessity. It reminded me of a Milton Friedman quote: “If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there’d be a shortage of sand.”
Cuba and Venezuela are great examples of the accuracy of that. Venezuela is suffering from a shortage of toilet paper. (One woman was quoted as complaining about the huge shortage of baby diapers, so she shifted to cotton diapers – only to find a shortage of detergent!)
Why do I bring this up? Because Bernie Sanders, Socialist-turned-Democrat-Socialist who caucuses with the Democrat Party, and is running for president as a Democrat, says: “You don’t necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray deodorants or of 18 different pairs of sneakers when children are hungry in this country.”
There is something in the brains of socialists that does not compute, and one of the aspects is their hatred of people having choices.
When our media group reached Russia, we found women standing in lines without regard to what was at the front of the line, and they were clutching string bags that they kept in their purses. Whatever was at the front of the line, if not needed, could be traded or bartered for something needed.
Now I have to admit that everything was available in Russia – just not to everyone. Everything was available in nomenclature stores, available to high government functionaries and tourists. I have previously told the story of a beautiful 21-year-old resident of Saint Petersburg who offered to spend the weekend with me if I would take her money, go to a nomenclature store and buy her a mink coat.
There is no shortage of items in Cuba, North Korea, or Venezuela either – if you are the nomenclature of those socialist/communist nations. Shortages are for everyone else.
A friend of mine married a Russian woman who was eventually permitted to come to Rancho Bernardo and bring her Russian mother for a visit. The mother could not believe that the RB Von’s was genuine; she believed it was a Potemkin Village. The newly arrived wife told her mother to get in the car, and they drove randomly with the mother telling her daughter at which stores to stop for inspection. It took some time to convince the mother.