Chicago World

Plenty Of Cars In Czechoslovakia

There's no trouble in buying a car in Czechoslovakia, where the automobile industry has been nationalized and, like practically all other enterprises, is run by the state. All you have to do is walk into an agency and plunk down the money.

The only catch is the price. The available car, a two door sedan, costs more than 415,000 crowns, which is about $8,300. The sum represents 80 months of the average worker's pay. The car, according to an AP dispatch, is "considerably smaller than the 1933 Chevrolet." If you have a ration permit proving your need for a car, other than a desire to own one, you can get it for about $4,000.

That is an excellent example of how regimented economies, which have abolished all competition and all free enterprise, produce goods for the people. There is no need to improve quality or reduce prices—the customer takes what the government offers him or does without. Absolute monopoly prevails. Only the "elite" class or office holder has sufficient income or political pull to live beyond a subsistence level.

In this country, by contrast, every producer must face the competition of many other producers, every one of which is out to get more business. This can only be done by pleasing the customer. On the retail level, regardless of the kind of goods involved, the competition is particularly intense, with every merchant and dealer looking for new ways to bring the customers in. We get better goods, and a more varied selection. We get them at a price which competition holds to the lowest possible level. And those goods are within the reach of the millions, not of just the few.