OPINION: Do You Know Your Grandmother's Shoe Size?

Few of us know our grandmother's shoe size. I don't even know my wife's shoe size. But Russians, during the socialist empire of the USSR, did. They also knew by heart the clothing sizes of their uncles, parents, aunts, siblings, friends and cousins. Why? Because socialism is terrible at producing and distributing goods and services, which inevitably leads to shortages, rationing and long waiting lines – with lines being the very essence of existing socialism. 

The foolish election of socialists Zohran Mamdani in New York City and Katie Wilson in Seattle lead me to re-read the 1976 book, The Russians, by the New York Times correspondent Hedrick Smith. He tells us in chapter 2, The Art of Queuing, that the average Soviet woman stood in lines two hours a day, seven days a week, for needed consumer products. Even the Soviet press stated that Russians spent 30 billion man-hours a year in line just to make purchases. When a store received a shipment, long lines formed frantically. A forming line indicated something was there, though many shoppers didn't know what was for sale. Get in line first and ask questions later. One lady told Smith she asked those at the end of a line what was being sold and was told they didn't know. She walked up 20 or 30 yards asking people and no one knew. She said, “Finally, I gave up asking.” 

Because Russians did not have credit cards they always carried as much cash as possible. When they reached the front of the line, and it wasn't sold out, they spent all their cash on whatever was being offered. It was a cardinal rule to shop for others and an unforgivable sin not to. They knew somewhere a family member or friend was in line buying something for which they could later swap. 

The list of scarce items was practically endless: toothpaste, towels, hats, locks, axes, coats, sausages, radios, oranges, rugs, shoes, bread, toasters, etc. Smith tells of people who stood in line for 90 minutes to buy four pineapples, four hours for three heads of cabbage only to find the cabbages were sold out, 18 hours to sign up to purchase a rug at some later date. He saw lines from a few yards long to half a block and some nearly a mile long, all moving at an excruciating creep.

The election of Mamdani and Wilson doesn't mean Americans will soon be witnessing similar waiting lines and shortages, but it is definitely a naive step in the wrong direction.

We in Bay County can help halt a drift toward the socialist abyss by imparting to our children enlightened gratitude for our civilization that is too often taken for granted. Through our families, civic organizations, churches, schools and synagogues, we need to unapologetically affirm capitalism’s history of lifting millions out of poverty and delivering human dignity.

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