US/Soviet wage comparisons circa 1985

[Pasi Nurminen]

Here's how daily, monthly and annual budget of average Soviet citizen looked like.


Rouble was primary Soviet currency. 1 rouble = 100 copecks.



Comparision table: prices in USA and USSR.

Note: since USA didn't have fixed prices, I give approximization.



Rent - 1000-2000 dollars (5 roubles in USSR).

Lessons of music - 30 dollars per hour (free in USSR).

Ticket to opera - at least 100 dollars (1 rouble 50 copecks).

Ticket to cinema - 10 dollars (50 copecks).

Highway transit - 10 dollars (free).

Bus ticket - 3 dollars (5 copecks).

Loaf of bread - around 1 dollar (14 copecks).

Liter of milk - around 1 dollar (22 copecks).

Kilogram of potato - around 1 dollar (6 copecks).

Glasses (spectacles) - at least 200 dollars (5 roubles).

Family medical insurance - up to 850 dollars per month (healthcare is free).

Visit to dentist - at least 500 dollars (free).

Dental implant - at least 3,000 dollars (free).

Antibiotic drug - 40 dollars (40 copecks).

Recreation tourist ticket - at least 2,000 dollars (90 roubles).

Education - at least 40,000 dollars (free, plus scholarship equal of 3,000 roubles for everybody).




Now, the monthly wages. Structure changed from time to time, but we are not interested in Gorby's kapitalist Perestroika era (205 roubles), of course.

Low-qualified industrial worker - 324 roubles.

Serviceman or goverment official - 360 roubles.

Scientist, engineer or high-qualified worker - 626 roubles.


Plus so-called "13th wage" - traditional annual payment, usually equal of monthly wage.

Plus various gifts to shock workers, and stuff like that.

So, annual income of Soviet engineer is 8,138 roubles.

It is SPENDING money - such stuff like education, sports and stuff like that is free, while food, rent and medicals are extra-cheap.


You can open savings account in bank. It has 2% of interest.

That means that Soviet engineer's monthly wage, 626 roubles, put on this account, will give monthly profit of 12 roubles and 52 copecks, which is enough to visit cinema 25 times per month - almost daily.

Soviet engineer's annual wage, put on savings account, will produce monthly profit of 162 roubles and 76 copecks.

That covers annual recreation tourist trip (minus 90 roubles), and everything else Soviet citizen might need.


Anyway, make your own calculations, play with it.

Let's try to measure wealth of average American and Soviet workers in objective, natural terms. Obviously these numbers are slightly skewed, as they are for American cities. Rural American costs would be lower somewhat.

 

[Drewcifer]

Rent - 1000-2000 dollars (5 roubles in USSR).

This number is way off. In 1987 I paid $200 a month for a studio apartment in Minneapolis.

 

[Pasi Nurminen]

Still a lot more than 5 roubles!

 

[amadeus]

Automobiles

USA: $9,900.00
USSR: N/A

Beef

USA: $1.59 a pound
USSR: N/A

Microwaves

USA: $200.00
USSR: N/A

VCRs

USA: $300.00
USSR: N/A

Freedom

USA: Free
USSR: N/A

And the quality of life was better in Russia? Uh...

 

[cgannon64]

I'm not sure, but are you trying to say it was better to live in Soviet Russia than America?

Plus some of the numbers or off. Driving on the highway isn't $10. Its not even $10 now, and I imagine it was even cheaper back then. Also, I'm sure the movies were cheaper back then...and education is cheaper than you say, unless you mean college. My high school is $8000 a year, and this is 2004.

 

[Pasi Nurminen]

I'm just trying to point out that living in the Eastern Bloc was not nearly as bad as many people, especially the media, make it out.

 

[Drewcifer]

Still a lot more than 5 roubles!

Yeah but the heat and electricity worked 24 hours a day. Plus I could walk to a store that actually had goods to sell.

 

[cgannon64]

All those things are free, but the quality was probably alot worse than ours.

 

[amadeus]

I'm just trying to point out that living in the Eastern Bloc was not nearly as bad as many people, especially the media, make it out.

HA!

 

[amadeus]

All those things are free, but the quality was probably alot worse than ours.

Don't fall into that trap. Those aren't "free." It's the state stealing wages and then redistributing them.

 

[Drewcifer]

I'm just trying to point out that living in the Eastern Bloc was not nearly as bad as many people, especially the media, make it out.

I'm not sure that that is true. In 1985 the economy of the Eastern Bloc was on the edge of colapse, many basic goods like toilet paper and meat were becomming difficult to get outside of the black market. Black market prices were much higher.

 

[_Philospher_]

I'm sorry, but if things were not as bad in the USSR as we think, then why isn't it still around? Why were people rebelling against the Soviet goverment all across Eastern Europe. Perhaps, as you say it wasn't as bad as we think it is, but only slightly less...

 

[Pasi Nurminen]

All those things are free, but the quality was probably alot worse than ours.

Not really. Bread is bread. Milk is milk. A highway is a highway. A colour TV (also free) is a colour TV.

You can bash all you want, the fact that wages have gone down and prices have skyrocted in capitalist Russia alone states that life was much better in the Soviet republic.

Oh, and let's place bets on how long it takes rmsharpe to blow his load all over this thread.

 

[Pasi Nurminen]

You may wish to note that I got this figures from an actual ex-Soviet citizen, so you know they're accurate.

 

[Ovulator]

Ticket to opera - at least 100 dollars (1 rouble 50 copecks).

My parents bought tickets to the theater for $25.

Ticket to cinema - 10 dollars (50 copecks).

I payed $2-$3

Bus ticket - 3 dollars (5 copecks).

I payed 50¢

So, annual income of Soviet engineer is 8,138 roubles.

Average annual income in the US was around 30k? No?

 

[Pasi Nurminen]

Again, your prices are still much higher than they were in the Soviet Union!

 

[Uncle Sam]

I'm just trying to point out that living in the Eastern Bloc was not nearly as bad as many people, especially the media, make it out.

I think it's more that you don't want to believe or admit it was.

 

[cgannon64]

A highway is a highway. A colour TV (also free) is a colour TV.

A highway with holes as opposed to a quality highway?

And how many Soviets had color TVs anyway?

 

[Drewcifer]

You may wish to note that I got this figures from an actual ex-Soviet citizen, so you know they're accurate.

But most of your figures for the US are high by todays standards. Compared to the actual prices in the US 20 years ago they are ridiculous.

 

[Pasi Nurminen]

But most of your figures for the US are high by todays standards. Compared to the actual prices in the US 20 years ago they are ridiculous.

Still, much cheaper in the Soviet Union!

And cgannon: Soviet highways were the same as American highways. Asphalt is asphalt. And the vast majority of Soviet households had TVs.

In the 1970s and 1980s, television become the preeminent mass medium. In 1988 approximately 75 million households owned television sets, and an estimated 93 percent of the population watched television. Moscow, the base from which most of the television stations broadcast, transmitted some 90 percent of the country's programs, with the help of more than 350 stations and nearly 1,400 relay facilities. Moscow projected some fifty hours of news, commentaries, education, and entertainment every day from its four channels. About 20 percent of this programming consisted of news, the main program being "Vremia" (Time), a thirty-five- to forty-five-minute news program beginning at 9:00 P.M Moscow time. Between 80 and 90 percent of all families who owned televisions followed "Vremia" broadcasts. Normally, about two-thirds of reporting on each telecast consisted of domestic affairs, usually stories concentrating on the government, the economy, and important regional events. International news filled just under one-third of the format; three to four minutes were devoted to sports and two minutes to weather. Another news program, "Vokrug sveta" (Today in the World), which featured foreign affairs reports and short but in-depth news analyses, attracted from 60 to 90 million viewers every evening, particularly because it was broadcast both in the early evening and in the late evening.

Countless "firsts" were achieved on Soviet television, beginning under Andropov and continuing with Gorbachev. During Andropov's rule, coverage was given to the downing of the South Korean airliner that strayed over Soviet territory in 1983, including a live broadcast featuring several high-level political and military leaders who answered questions from reporters without prior submission. With Gorbachev's accession, many live programs were broadcast via satellite television bridges (satellite electronic links) between the Soviet Union and the United States; footage and commentary were shown on the war in Afghanistan; the Chernobyl' nuclear reactor accident was explored in-depth; the Armenian earthquake was covered; and live interviews, speeches, and debates involving Gorbachev and other Politburo members were broadcast.