Soft Goods

Abstract

Recall that by ‘soft’ goods we mean all consumer goods other than food and durables. Comparison is made difficult here, in addition to everything else, by different classifications in the statistics of the two countries.’ In Table 8.1 (as in Table 9.1 in Chapter 9) I first present figures for goods for which the classifications coincide, and then try to place similar subgroups of goods close to each other. Remember (Table 4.1) that according to the authors’ calculations, total Soviet per capita consumption as a percentage of American for this entire group is: in rubles — 32 per cent, in dollars — 48 per cent, and by the geometric mean — 39 per cent. I recommend that the reader examine carefully the indicators for expenditures on various goods in Table 8.1 and compare them with each other: they are interesting in themselves.