ABSTRACT
Industrial firms too, may require additional labor, or extra hours from their existing labor force, to meet specific requirements, such as agreed delivery dates, or to ensure that the product reaches a port in time for loading, or a variety of similar reasons. In the actual Soviet experience, the combination of high costs, lavish use of labor, the priority of plan-fulfillment and the guaranteed minimum have led to serious losses and a very rapid increase in state credits granted to farms, many of which have had to be written off. The specific conclusion is then drawn that those who argue that kolkhoz labor incentives are in principle ineffective, and "that the large size of collectives exacerbates the problem" are in error. There can scarcely be any observer of the Soviet kolkhoz, in and out of the Soviet Union, who doubts that labor incentives are notoriously poor.
