ABSTRACT
In Eastern Europe, the German Democratic Republic and Czechoslovakia are more advanced economically; Bulgaria, Romania, and Yugoslavia are less developed. Hungarians do a lot of their shopping in Vienna, not just diplomats and business people, but tourists; of the Eastern European countries, Hungary probably stands second to Yugoslavia in the number of tourists heading West. The state shops have dull names and insipid advertising and sell a product to match. Hungarians eat a lot of bread, and the bakeries offer an enormous assortment: potato bread, corn bread, rye bread, soya bread, baguettes, and crescent rolls. A food market, made up of many small stands, takes up a large part of downtown Budapest. In addition, state or cooperative companies can use their profits to provide employee housing subsidies of 150,000-200,000 forints, also at favorable terms. Free health care is considered a major achievement of socialism, but many people complain about it; both the pride and the complaints seem justified.
