1988. 1988.05.10. Interjú Kádár Jánossal / HU_BFL_XIV_47_2
_ 7 _ J work. So, the reform, while it can boast of success, at the same time has very serious defects in it. Now, do you think you can turn the situation around? KADAR: Indeed, we have serious and weighty problems to solve. However, in our circumstances, the solution of these cannot even be imagined without proceeding further along the path which we have followed; we must take the necessary steps forward. We must confront many quite serious obstacles in the course of solving the problems. One of these is that a certain system of equalization has been created which cannot be continued. In terms of companies, this means that although we have ones which operate well in Hungary, we have taken away their profits and have given these to those companies which did nőt work well. This path can no longer be followed. The path of individual equalization [leveling] cannot be continued either. We must definitely follow a path on which each person is rewarded according to his productivity and his work. This means, of course, that the Capital available fór investments as well as labor, must be regrouped to the areas where Progressive and efficient economic activities are taking piacé. MCLAUGHLIN: Forty percent of your population live at subsistence level or below. You have the highest suicide rate in the world. You have a very high alcoholism rate. You have a surprising number of heart attacks among mén 38 to 50 years of age because of stress working three jobs. Somé people in the West say the markét socialism you have introduced, which may be the nearest thing to a model fór Gorbachev, has nőt worked. It hasn't worked in Yugoslavia. They have a 200 percent inflation rate. It's nőt working in Poland. And you have serious problems there. What do you say to people who say that your experiment is going through a period of slow failure? KADAR: No, you cannot say that that way. What I must say is that there are many problems here which exist fór different reasons, of course, [than] what you have mentioned. - Of course, tjiis is a matter of judgment. You have said that forty percent [of the population] lives at the poverty level. Pút this way, this is an exaggeration. It is nőt true, since if you inquire anywhere, from anyone in Hungary, [you will hear] that the average Hungárián person lives tolerably well. Our weaker point is that of production [productivity]. We are nőt badly off as far as consumption is concerned. We have problems’with production. We have many achievements which we have publicized and broadcast, bút we had a phase lag as far as the creation of financial bases where concerned. Thus, changes have to be made here too. We must first establish the financial bases and then our achievements must be further developed. We are excellent at distributing [benefits], bút in the production of the things that must be distributed, in that we are weaker. And the socialist system in global terms is struggling with the problem of establishing the prerequisites fór efficient production within the framework of the socialist system. _____5________
