On the Path to a Market Economy: The Social Aspect

Abstract

We are all experiencing the heavy burden of the shock therapy prescribed for our gravely ill economy by the Russian government and an authoritative body of International Monetary Fund experts. During the first six months of this therapy, the prices of consumer goods and services soared 10-fold on the average; compared with June 1991, 13-fold. Despite repeated adjustments of wages, the real incomes of workers and employees last year declined by 32 percent according to the Russian [Federation] State Committee for Statistics, but the actual decline was much greater. Almost one-third of society found itself below the subsistence minimum. The working people's cash savings are steadily losing their value. The position of the most vulnerable strata—pensioners, the disabled, families with many children, and students—is especially dramatic. The trouble is not only that the cost of goods is rising and family budgets are becoming more meager, production is also declining [1]. The most urgently needed drugs are in sh...