Word: output
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Dates: during 1990-1990
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Just as the auto industry determines the basic health and output of a host of other industries (steel, plastics, rubber), the American entertainment business has become a driving force behind other key segments of the country's economy. As a result of this so-called multiplier effect, the products and profits of dozens of U.S. industries are umbilically tied to American entertainment: fast food, communications technology, sportswear, toys and games, sporting goods, advertising, travel, consumer electronics and so on. And the underlying strength of the American economy, many economists believe, has a lot to do with...
...much touted new auto in October. Last week GM's Saturn division said that trouble in fitting the car's doors and other exterior components, and in obtaining parts that meet strict quality standards, had limited production through Nov. 30 to 2,162 autos, one- third of the planned output. Saturn said it was correcting the problems, and expects to build 3,000 cars in December, still less than half the projected production rate...
Neither is the command economy, the polaropposite (if there is such a thing) of the marketeconomy. Here production is God and the consumeris meaningless. Success is measured in raw output:pairs of shoes, tons of lumber, stacks of bricks...
This Alice in Wonderland economy extends to theindividual level as well. Why should Sergei workharder if he isn't rewarded for additional output?And even if he were rewarded by merit, he can'tbuy anything worth having with his money, sinceMoscow bureaucrats, not he and other Soviets, setthe demand for goods. And even if he could somehowget what he wants, it would be of only the lowestquality, since quantity and not quality isrewarded by Gosplan. Soviet televisions, forexample, are prone to explode...
...radical change from past Soviet policies,in June of 1988 Gorbachev decided to allow smallgroups of Russians to lease land for 50 years andsell on the market any output they produce overthe state-imposed quota. Not quite privateownership, but this piece of legislation is aconcession that incentives--the bastion ofcapitalism--are necessary in any economy...