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There were no penalties in USSR for doing half-assed job (unless someone died because of it, and even then not always). Everyone had a right to work. Even if you're fired (which almost didn't happen), you'll have another shitty job with the same shitty pay in no time.

No incentives for quality.

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> No incentives for quality.

Is that so? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_quality_mark_of_the_USSR: "Obtaining the sign allowed the enterprises to increase the state controlled price for the goods by ten percent." Arguably this was abused, as explained later, but the original statement that quality control was absent in USSR is not entirely correct. There were penalties for "doing things deliberately wrong" and quite severe from what I recall. Then again I might have warped perception as I grew up in a city with several "black box factories".

Edit: typo

There is a difference between actual quality of mass produced items and "obtaining the sign". Either decision was made behind closed doors according to Party interests or limited series (tens of units if not less) were manufactured to get positive assessment.

Everything made in USSR was shit, unless manufactured on recently imported equipment.

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