Hacker News Reader

Comment by cwaniak | Hacker News Reader

Everybody in the USSR had job. But these jobs didn't produce any (usually) value to the society. Who wants to have a job like this? You want to do something valuable so you know that what you produce people are willing to pay for (vs. being forced to pay for it). It just seems much more healthy too.

View on HN

>Everybody in the USSR had job. But these jobs didn't produce any (usually) value to the society.

Well, they got a huge backwater, mostly agricultural country, into one of the big powers of the industrial era. And got to feed some hundends of million of people, have space exploration, very good physics and math, music and arts, and a lot more besides.

So, it's a myth that these jobs didn't produce any value to the society. They just weren't as competitive as the west, but then again, they started from far worse and backwards conditions, in an a land which is cold and unhabitable as hell in large regions. And they had political BS to deal with too.

Not every similar scheme will result in the same results. Stalinist politics and such is not a necessary byproduct of everybody having a guaranteed job.

It was criminal offense not to have a job. Regime just used it as a stick on homeless and people outside system. Some actually payd their employer for providing a fake job; for example self-employed plumbers in gray economy.

Russia was a leading world power long before the creation of the USSR. Your "backwater" was:

"One of the largest empires in world history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires."

(Wikpedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Empire)

While it's true that Russia was a major world power, the passage you quote only really establishes that it was large, which would be true of a "huge backwater" too.

I disagree. I don't think everyone wants or needs a valuable job, and to most people, this is an unobtainable dream. The truth is that most people I've met doing menial jobs are happy doing them IF they have enough money to cover necessities and do something enjoyable outside of work and their employer treats them fairly. This means that in the balance, their life is meaningful, even if their employment isn't.

I also believe job satisfaction is completely independent of a job's contribution or value to society. Cleaning toilets has a definite societal benefit, but it is still menial work that requires little actual skill and is a job most people look for ways out of.

That people are willing to pay for something does not indicate value. The same old story of price vs value. The last finantial crisis is a great example of being able to sell something without(or lesser) value. Value is a great market, but it is not directly proportional to value.

Another example, is that if you are sick and about to die, the value of the cure for you is infinite, so you would pay everything you have an everything you will ever have if you had to. Value != Price.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com