The ethics of buying PRL products. Tax?

we used to buy a lot of East European produce as my Dad felt bad for the people and wanted to give them a bit of money (he was/is in no way a leftist)

also, with the exception of some truly awful Romanian tyres, East European produce was usually cheap, reliable and un-showy.

would you have prefered if we'd boycotted Eastern Block produce instead to show our support?

in 1981 we didn't truly know the scale of the food shortages in Poland, and Dad now says that if he'd known he would have had a serious dilemma about buying Polish food

i'm really keen to know what you thought back then & now

all the best tim

Most PRL product had "Made in USSR" sign on it, and their sell supported Russia more than Poland.


I'm not sure if it would made much a difference for us, but the Idea itself was very noble. I wish people knew then about it...

Very supportive gesture, no matter how it worked.

Merged: Tax in the PRL

Seeing Ziemowit's comments about how a retail tax existed in Poland before VAT, it made me wonder...

How did tax work in the PRL? I know the PIT was introduced in 1991 and VAT in 1993, but what existed before then?

pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historia_podatk%C3%B3w_w_Polsce#System_podatkowy_Polski_Ludowej -> some here although it doesn't seem to be clear. Generally in PRL times government owned most of the things so taxation wasn't that important. If they wanted to get more money out of people, I think they were rather just increasing prices and/or "production plans".