What where the postive effects of Centrally Planned Economy in the Soviet Union?

Answer 1

It's really hard to seperate out positive and negative effects. I think it's clear that the overall effect was overwhelmingly negative.

That said, there should have been some positive effects from a Centrally Planned Economy vs a free economy. The first obvious one is that central planning can smooth out the boom/bust cycle. In a free economy, for example America, if the price of corn is really good 1 year, the next year everyone plants corn and the price plummets, while maybe the price of beans goes up because all the soy bean farmers planted corn this year. With Central planning, this wouldn't happen because you would have 1 group of people looking at the big picture rather than each individual farmer trying to follow the money.

In addition, you should have more rational allocation of resources. During the 1990s there was a huge build out of fiber optic cable, to run the internet. Cables were laid back and forth across the country by a dozen different companies. At the end of the decade people began to realize that there just wasn't enough traffic on the internet to use all the cable that had been laid, and a bunch of those companies were bought out or went bankrupt. With central planning, you've got 1 group planning the construction and laying of fiber optic lines, so you don't put in 3-4 cables where only 1 is needed.

In fairness, both of the above are theoretical benefits. In reality, you had crops rotting in the fields because the farmers were paid the same whether they harvested them or not. You also had resources being allocated based on who had the most influence, and not where they would be most useful. But you ask for positives.

Answer 2

A hand full of people got materially wealthy at the expense of the masses. And they were able to control the masses so that they could maintain their wealth and power.

Answer 3

It really depends on the time period... 1930s were very different from 1970s...

Answer 4

There were no positive effects.
.

Answer 5

few people had to work
nobody could get fired
little to do
state guaranteed all