Economic Weaknesses in the USSR by 1985

Question 1

What were the reasons why the economy was weak?

Answer 1

1. Centralized Economy.
2. Lack of Incentive.
3. High military spending.
4. Lack of Infrastructure.

Question 2

What was bad about the centralized economy?

Answer 2

It was highly inefficient. They failed to coordinate fertilizer movements to farms which would mean they would come late leading to poor yields in farms.
Some of the shipments of steel and oil were defective but were still sent to the factories meaning it was also highly wasteful.

Question 3

What was bad about the lack of incentive?

Answer 3

No one wanted to work hard nor be innovative, which led to low productivity. All the targets were also made upon quantity not quality which meant that a lot of the things made were wasted.

Question 4

What was the comparison to an average US farm in 1985?

Answer 4

American Farms were 6 times more efficient than the ones in the USSR with even less men working there.

Question 5

What was so bad about the lack of infrastructure?

Answer 5

The transport links were underdeveloped as well as storage facilities were undeveloped which led to again a lot of wastage.

Question 6

What was so bad about the military expenditure in 1985?

Answer 6

Took up a significant portion of the spending which took a large toll on the stagnant economy which undermined the USSR.

Question 7

How much did military spending go up between 1965-85?

Answer 7

12% to 17% which was relatively high compared to the US’ 6%.