Korelsky, V. F. Fish, fishermen and fish industry in Russia / V. F. Korelsky. - Bremen : Krebs, [1993?]-.

Can the wages of all laborers of the national economy be raised by 5% a year, in the branches producing means of production by 6%, in those producing consumer goods by 4%, and for all workers, on the average, say, by 5%? Note one more regularity: nowadays an increase in the volume of the output is followed by an absolute reduction in the number of workers and, consequently, the rates of growth of the cost of output are somewhat higher than the rates of the increase in the volume of production. This means that in our Figure we can increase the rates of growth of 8% and 4%; but can we proceed from these figures to increase the wages? But this is what is done today, namely, the lion’s share of the increase in wages goes to workers who give intermediate production. These branches possess multimillion funds, the labor in them is hard, unhealthy and complicated, and the wages are higher than those in the branches of group “B.” All the attempts to limit their wages are overcome. The scale of the tax rates on the increase in the wages fund* has not proved to be an obstacle. The working people who will not serve the production of consumer goods do not carry any responsibility. They must be paid for their labor. However, because of the errors in the centralized planning, they are inevitably punished economically when it appears that they cannot buy anything worthwhile for the wages they earned earnestly. For the first time the country encountered this situation in the Tyumen and Murmansk regions in 1985 where fishermen, miners, geologists, oil-industry workers and gas-industry workers earned 800-1200 roubles a month but could not find anything worthwhile to spend their money on and had to travel to the “mainland” to spend it When time came to pay wages, there was no cash sufficient to pay them. The people were indignant and, as a result, an airplane from Moscow brought a new amount of money. A similar phenomenon can be observed now throughout the country, namely, people do not find anything worthwhile to spend their money on and are forced to accumulate it. The time comes to pay wages but the State Bank does not ensure the cash and the state has to resori to a new money emission. Thus, the economic limit of payments is not the rate of growth of the cost of production but the rate of growth of the output of those industries which produce real elements of the personal consumption as well as the rate of the increase in the services and in passenger transport.This is the economic situation in the country today. From year to year, for a long time, the economic balance was violated and, as a result, a “superpower with industries eating themselves” was created with a very low level of welfare for the population. The main cause of the inflation in our country is not the excess of money but the deficit of goods and a permanent growth of prices. We should not limit the wages, but should raise the limits up to which it * The decision of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the taxation of the wages fund. Izvestiya, August 11, 1989. 7 5