"Shabashing" was a free market anomaly in a planned socialistic society. Because the shortage of productive workers jeopardized the completion of five-year plans, collective farms and factories were allowed to hire freelancers (shabashniks) and offer liberal pay based on performance. Teams of shabashniks were universally hated by collective farmers and factory workers, but were tolerated. In the Rusian language, "shabashnik" is particularly negative. Few years ago, shabashniks' activities were still considered going against the socialist moral. Supposedly, shabashniks were parasites taking advantage of momentary difficulties in the planned economy; their huge incomes woke resentment in the collective sector workers and employees and they often appeared as "antisocial elements'.
Partly from: K. Malfliet, La nouvelle loi sur le travail individuel en URSS in RIDC, Paris, 1988
No comments:
Post a Comment