Why Communism Failed

Sunday, 11/5/06
1700

Today is a nice slow day, about half work and half time for myself. I woke up at 0456 (I now wake up within five minutes either way of 0500, with or without an alarm). I finished my movie ("The Brothers Grimm", which got good reviews but which I thought was kind of silly and superficial), and got up and went to work about 0700. I spent the morning in the office, with a short break for breakfast (and lots of interruptions for typical stuff like tripped circuit breakers and "Do you have any _______?" type requests). I did manage to finish my "must do" tasks, though. Now my maintenance management system is complete, as are my inspection checklists for all our systems. (Of course, both are subject to change as they face the test of actual use).

The next step is to commence detailed inspections of everything and start getting work orders in to fix the stuff that's broken. Concurrent with that is my task to follow the loop through on the work orders that are already in, and see what ever happened to them. And of course there are a zillion other things to do. But now I can at least have a semi-intelligent reply when someone asks me "What is the status of our (name a system)?". Up until now it's been a seat-of-the-pants kind of thing.

I also found out this morning that a major industrial supplier I wanted to use is an approved DOD vendor, so I ought to be able to order some stuff we need without jumping through all kinds of elaborate hoops. That fact alone just about made my day! I hope to close that loop this week and actually get some needed supplies ordered. Our supply system is challenging, to say the least (see below...)

After lunch I retired to my room to write this and do a couple other things. Then I came over to the PX area to return my movie, have a cup of iced coffee, and read for awhile. I've started the book my CO gave me to read, called "Tipping Point". It's pretty good, and I'm sure I'll post a review when I'm done.

So what does all this have to do with the failure of communism? Well, in addition to the fact that it was morally abhorrent, communism failed because it just didn't work. And therein lies my story:

When I was in the Army in Germany in the early 1980’s, I became frustrated with the chronic shortages of certain very basic items at the PX. These were things that nearly every soldier needed, such as black bootlaces and AA batteries. I talked to the manager of the AAFES system in Frankfurt about it, and his reply was something like “we can only order a certain amount, and every time we get more, people just buy them all”. Well, duh!

(As an aside, it was while I was stationed in Germany that I acquired my habit of stockpiling fairly large quantities of everything I use at home, and replenishing those stockpiles periodically as they get low, but well before I run out.)

I wrote a letter to the Stars & Stripes (the military newspaper) which was published along with an official AAFES reply. They basically said they were doing the best they could, but that it was hard for their large, centrally-managed system to respond to local differences in demand.

The ironic thing about their reply was that this was the exact point I had made in my letter. We were over there defending the capitalist system of free enterprise and individual initiative against the communist system of state ownership and central planning, and yet the PX from which we had to buy our own personal supplies was an inefficient, centrally-planned bureaucracy. The AAFES officials either didn’t get the point or just ignored it.

Well, some things never change. Twenty-five years later, although we have a generally well-stocked PX, here is the shelf containing all the boot care products at the Military Clothing Sales Store (run by AAFES) here at Camp Arifjan:

*The results of central planning

Notice that, from left to right, we have leather dressing, waterproofing, black edge dressing, more black edge dressing, black leather dye, black polish, black leather boot care kits, Honor Guard (high gloss) black boot polish, more black boot polish, and yet more black boot polish.

The thing is, I haven’t seen a pair of black boots since I got over here. We all wear the tan suede-and-nylon desert boots that go with our desert uniforms. Kiwi makes boot care kits for these, and fortunately I bought one before leaving the US. (Yes, the AAFES stores in the States sell the desert boot care kits. We just don’t have any over here in the desert!) :-)

I talked to the PX manager about it, and his answer was “Yes, we know, but we are on the old Plan-O-Gram” (whatever the heck that is). It seems they have little or no control over what they get in, and just have to take whatever comes. The thing that cracks me up is that they even bothered to put it out on the shelf. That stuff could sit there until Kingdom Come, and nobody would buy any of it. (I wonder if their automated inventory control system will simply register that they don’t need any boot care products, since they are fully stocked? It actually *could* sit there until Kingdom Come!) Amazing.

Plus ca change, plus ce la meme chose...

Maybe we should let Wal-Mart come over here and take a crack at it.

Mood: Amused
Music: Franz Danzi - Bassoon Concertos