Comments on: Communist-style incentives at work

By: T. Beholder

T. Beholder — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 13:12:18 +0000

One modern equivalent of cast iron bathtubs may be “monster digesters”.

But why are they so big?

Bacteria is not a nuke, it doesn’t need minimum size. The farmers would probably prefer a smaller/modular system that does not require more feed than is available, and won’t be this troublesome if it craps itself.

But it’s made by a subsidies-driven industry. So the incentives are decided more by the bureaucrats than the customers. The bureaucrats usually want reports with ever greater numbers. Perhaps the problem is there.

By: James James

James James — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 05:57:00 +0000

I had a schoolteacher who spent some time in the Soviet Union; he personally attested the windscreen wiper shortage and removal to prevent theft.

I had a colleague who refused to let me update some templates to fix the envelope address window issue. I fixed them and she changed them back and admonished me. Because she was an idiot.

By: Lucklucky

Lucklucky — Sat, 10 Feb 2018 19:14:35 +0000

But that “smug” caveat does not apply, since they were not the result of capitalist incentives.

In fact, it was because there weren’t capitalist incentives.

By: Chedolf

Chedolf — Sat, 10 Feb 2018 02:26:45 +0000

“may be apocryphal”

This drives me insane.

By: David Foster

David Foster — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 20:32:31 +0000

Thanks for the link. Also very interesting in terms of incentives is Gennady Andreev-Khomiakov's memoir Bitter Waters, which describes his experiences as deputy manager of a Stalin-era Soviet factory.

By: Charles W. Abbott

Charles W. Abbott — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 15:25:16 +0000

I believe the shortage of windshield wipers is well documented anecdotally. In Hedrick Smith's The Russians (1975) he mentioned the chaos in Moscow when rain began suddenly and everyone had to pull over to put their windshield wipers on. If you left them on every day they would soon be stolen.