76-XX

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Planned Economy

Transcript In the interest of morale boosting and day brightening I'm going to see if I can make you feel better about this land of ours. I'll be right back. A young executive of the Adolph Coors Co. in Colorado has found himself on the mashed potato circuit now and then speaking out for free enterprise. He's earned the right and it isn't the only way he's defended the American way. Steve Ritchie is a graduate of the Air Force Academy and a Vietnam Veteran. One of the most highly decorated Americans in our national history he has the Air Force cross, 4 silver stars, 10 distinguished flying crosses and 24 air medals. He's a little irritated by those people who would trade what we have for a government planned and controlled economy. He points out that our poverty line—the income level that we declare is poverty in our society, is 800% higher than the world's average income. And He emphasizes that is 800% above the world's average income, not it's poverty level. His warning to us is summed up in his statement that, "Government controls, government regulations. and government planning are old, tired, rejected ideas that have never worked, and are not working anywhere in the world today." Steve has inspired me to do a little comparing of our situation with that of the most planned society in the world. One of our economists once said that if a Martian spaceship should circle the world looking for the best planned economy they would pick the one that wasn't planned—our own. We all know we have inflation, high prices hang over us like a cloud. They are probably more on our minds than anything else. But let's do a little looking on the bright side. That most planned country I mentioned is of course the Soviet Union. For the comparison we have to deal in average earnings. We find the worker in Russia has to work anywhere from 2 times to 10 times as long as his American counterpart for the simple necessities of life and the occasional luxuries if they are available in Russia at all are fantastically higher than in America. A Soviet worker puts in 3 1/2 hours for hamburger an American can earn with 34 min's. of work. For eggs it's 10 minutes in America and 97 in Russia. Apples that take 16 minutes of work here take 5 1/2 hours there. Butter takes almost 9 times as much work in the Soviet Utopia, shoes 6 times as long, soap more than 8 times. Your wife can bring home a new dress and you’ll only have to work 1/7th of the time as long as a Russian husband. That’s something to remember when she comes home with a new Easter outfit. There is one thing where they beat us—according to the shoppers who did the comparative buying. Potatoes would take 8 minutes work in America and only 7 in Russia—except that there weren’t any potatoes available for sale in the Russian stores. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 76-XX Production Date 11/16/1976 Book/Page N/A Audio No Youtube? No
		Added Notes A script was written, but never recorded for radio by Reagan. Used on the Citizen Reagan Podcast