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Refer to page 36, Weaknesses of Command Economies, number 1.

Read the text from this image (source: Kevin D. Williamson, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism):

IMPORTANT: WRITE OUT EACH QUESTION IN YOUR PAPER.

1. How does weakness 1 referred to above explain why Soviets did not have the shoes they need? Be detailed in your analysis.

weakness 1) Running an economy is so complicated and requires so much information that some resources are used inefficiently

2. As the US moves more toward socialism:

A. Should we expect to have more product options available to meet our needs or less? Why?

B. Is this good or bad? Why?

C. Is this an America you want to live in? Why or why not?

3. Think about the K-12 public education system in the US and answer the following questions:

A. Do you think the public schools do a good job of educating children? What are some of the weaknesses you see?

B. How is central planning seen in the US K-12 educational system? (Hint: Who decides what is taught, how long the school year runs, what is required to pass, who must attend and at what ages?)

C. If the market could offer options to parents for the education of their children, what kinds of options might we see? Would this be good or bad for the education of our children? Why?

D. Based on your answer to 3. A. above, do you think the quality of our healthcare would improve or fall if the government took it over or had more say in what hospitals could treat and not treat, how much they could charge, who could have an appointment and when, and other things related to our healthcare choices? Explain your answer.

no plagrirm need help with 2,3,4

222222222 If the Shoe Fits, It Wasn't Produced by Socialism By keeping the prices of consumer goods artificially low, the Soviet planners created the ubiquitous waiting line. Around that institution grew an elabo- rate subculture...with its own habits and rules. The odd thing is that short- ages appeared in product lines of which the Soviet Union was the largest producer in the world. In the late 1980s, the USSR produced more than three pairs of shoes for each citizen, but people had to wait to buy shoes. The prob- lem was that the available shoes did not reflect consumers' tastes: the shoes were made to fulfill a government plan, not to satisfy market demand." --James Dorn, Cato scholar, 1994 222222222 If the Shoe Fits, It Wasn't Produced by Socialism By keeping the prices of consumer goods artificially low, the Soviet planners created the ubiquitous waiting line. Around that institution grew an elabo- rate subculture...with its own habits and rules. The odd thing is that short- ages appeared in product lines of which the Soviet Union was the largest producer in the world. In the late 1980s, the USSR produced more than three pairs of shoes for each citizen, but people had to wait to buy shoes. The prob- lem was that the available shoes did not reflect consumers' tastes: the shoes were made to fulfill a government plan, not to satisfy market demand." --James Dorn, Cato scholar, 1994