ARKET SITUATIONS SHOW U.S. HAS A BETTER SYSTEM

Communism's fall in what was the Soviet Union can be explained in numerous philo~sophical~~ and political ways. It is a sweeping event that lends itself to sweeping translation. But the rise or demise of a system of government ultimately boils down to how citizens live within its governance. Ideologies, no matter how flagrantly invoked, can not sustain themselves indefinitely against the inertia of popular will. In this most recent circumstance, tales of human suffering in the new commonwealth give us a point from which to compare systems of government and the impact they have on people, their lowest common denom~inator.

The middle part of the United States braced late last year for what was projected to be, in the relative terms of this nation, a food calamity. An insect known as the poinsettia white~fly was wreaking havoc on produce crops in California and Arizona, areas from which much of the country's winter vegetables comes from. With the whiteflies doing their damage, supplies of some greens were expected to plummet, with prices showing a corresponding rise. There existed the possibility (one that never really played out because of an easing of the whitefly crisis) that some food items would not be available at market produce sections. The prospect did not gladden many American shoppers.

In Moscow over the weekend, Russian shoppers might have hoped for such a problem. The Soviet regime's state-owned markets, though now making their move to privatization, are finding themselves in a familiar state of emptiness. With no market forces driving production, food lines and depleted store shelves were commonplace in the communist Soviet Union. Political upheaval over the last year has further stymied the commonwealth's capacity for feeding its citizens. While on the right track in moving toward a market economy and a more democratic way of life, these independent states and their people will suffer through a difficult winter of transition.

Is there some useful comparison to be made in this case? Perhaps it is only of a "count-your-blessings" nature; the problems posed by a West Coast whitefly, while agriculturally and economically detrimental, don't stack up to adversities created by decades of government proprietorship of a marketplace. Prices vary and competition remains keen in the American grocery industry, but shelves remain stocked in U.S. stores. Americans flinch at the thought of an insect causing the price of a head of lettuce to rise. In Moscow, milk was in short supply over the weekend and being sold for triple its previous price.

The market-based system has its flaws particularly when pesky bugs enter the formula but would we have any other way? If we were queued in a Russian-length food line, our answer would certainly be "no."