Among the social assistance that will be eliminated is the so-called ration market, which distributes a small monthly quota of products to each citizen. No one can survive eating only what is recorded in his “ration book,” a document even more important here than our identity card.
But extremely low wages and high prices in the country’s other markets make the abolition of this subsidy dramatic and highly controversial.
It is not only a basic, though meager, support, but it is like the birdseed that justifies the cage.
Whenever the tone of criticism rises and dissenters began to point to the system, officials emerge to remind us that the government spends millions each year to provide us a few beans, a packet of coffee every thirty days, and that slice of bologna that feeds popular humor more than stomachs.
So it has been for more than forty years, since the establishment of the regulated market. At the time, my parents thought it would be a temporary, a transitional measure until the planned and centralized economy began to bear fruit.
Within a few days of my birth, my name was inscribed in the register of consumers, and twenty years later I had to enter the name of my son in the same list.
Rationing has become so ingrained in our lives that many do not know whether to laugh or cry at the news of its end.
We are all aware that keeping the “booklet” is unsustainable for the national economy, but few can imagine life without it.
In our house, we have decided to put the little book of graph paper we’ve been given for 2011 in a safe place, because if it really is the last one, surely it will become a historic document.
Those who defend its immediate elimination are sure it will mean the automatic appearance of tons of goods on the free market, and they assume this will cause prices to drop in this market not regulated by the state.
But perhaps the biggest change might be in the minds of the people; when they sense that the tiny portion of seed is no longer being placed inside the cage, they may begin to feel the real pressure of each one of the bars.
