0.5 liter of vodka? What were they supposed to do the other 29 days of the month?
this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2024
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Let alone the rest of the first day?
They have almost as much sugar as starch, 2.5kg of meat, and no other protein?
That is around 970 calories a day if you take 1/30th of each edible item on the Table.
It's not enough, but surprisingly almost half the needed amount.
If Poland is anything like the US, families were expected to keep a garden where they grew many vegetables and fruits, and often kept chickens.
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You supplement it with potatoes, carrots, cabbage, cucumbers and other veggies. And some apples and seasonal fruit.
Things sucked but people weren't malnourished back then.
Also not shown here: gasoline was also rationed, as were cars themselves.
I was trying to figure out how to make it work for week but a month?
Half a liter of vodka monthly? Aren't the Poles known for their consumption of vast quantities of the stuff?
Yeast is not on the list but the 2kg of sugar wasn't just for cakes I'm sure.
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I'm not gonna say that's anywhere near sufficient, but as a US citizen where do I sign up
To be ration-limited by what you can purchase? I'm sure that's a fad diet somewhere.
I might bring tankies out of the woodwork for saying this, but I remember one time a tankie told me that scarcity in communist countries is by design and it's a good thing, after I pointed out that people had to be on the waiting list just to get a car. What if the person lives in rural with no access to public transport?
I understand capitalism is wasteful, but doing the extreme opposite and making people wait to own a car or giving someone bare essentials is not a good thing. Having a scarcity economy is not good, especially considering that the Soviet Union produced more tanks than cars throughout its history. The American military industrial complex is rightly criticised for overspending, but communist countries are worse since the case is that more tanks were made than civilian cars. It means more budget went to the military than to producing consumer good. Talk about priorities.
Not a tankie, nor a communist, just a progressive with an interest in history, but,
after I pointed out that people had to be on the waiting list just to get a car. What if the person lives in rural with no access to public transport?
Is such a US-centric view. They all didn't need to drive cars, dude, they had public transportation.
Edit: Added emphasis for people having trouble reading
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(5 replies)
Soviet Union had a limited ability to produce things, especially heavy machinery. Their leadership quickly realised that they can't outproduce the Western countries on everything, so they decided to only match their military production capabilities. Which led to them falling further and further behind.
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Well if you really want to be restricted purchasing the maximum amount of those items then you don't need to sign up. Just limit your monthly amount to be as displayed.
Their priorities were fucked up. Cigarettes and alcohol, obviously, but more sugar than rice? Huh?
Also, lots of meat but no other food groups?
Rice is not precisely native to Poland... The staple food is potatoes, which weren't rationed.
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I'm as anti-capitalist as it comes but how the hell would this even last half a week, let alone a night with the vodka, rice, and sweets
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Would they have been expected to grow their own vegetables, or did they just embrace the average young male diet?
Sounds like a miserable existence. You're going to need a lot more vodka than that to cope.
Rationing in the early 80s is considered to be one of the major agitating factors that led to increased labor union activity and, thus, the eventual end of the Communist regime in Poland. Would seem that it was not nearly enough vodka to quietly cope!
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