What is the difference between black caviar and black bread? Besides taste and price, of course. The answer is obvious. The degree of necessity and indispensability. Without caviar, 99% of people can live without discomfort, but without bread it is already difficult. Products that are indispensable for the majority of consumers are products that are socially significant.
How products can be socially significant
A list of such products is approved by law. Of course, neither pineapples, nor avocados, nor salmon are included in the list of socially significant food products. This is just a necessary minimum of the cheapest goods. Foods that allow you not to stay hungry and not have a deficiency in essential vitamins and minerals, nothing more.
But if one of these products is excluded from the diet of the average person, you will have to not only change the usual diet, but also significantly increase the amount that you have to spend on food. Therefore, such products are called “socially significant goods”. The list of them is not too extensive, you can not find delicacies in it, but this is understandable.
What are “socially significant goods”?
Such lists are closely related to the concept of the consumer basket. It includes the smallest possible list of industrial goods, such as clothing, household chemicals, furniture, appliances, shoes, etc., medicines, cultural objects. Of course, the consumer basket also includes products defined as socially significant goods. This list is approved by the law “On the consumer basket as a whole in the Russian Federation”. It stipulates not only the names of services, non-food goods and products, but also for how long how many units are required. That is, the law guarantees, for example, every citizen the opportunity to buy potatoes, a suit and go to the theater.
But potatoes per month may not be X kilograms, one costume must be worn for U years, and the theater should be visited only N times a year. The exact norms of the consumer basket are calculated independently by each constituent entity of the Russian Federation and are subject to review once every five years.
Legislation providing the necessary minimum consumption
The Law “On the Basics of State Regulation of Trade Activities in the Russian Federation” and the related by-laws - Decree of July 17, 2010 on the approval of the list of socially significant goods and their marginal cost have much in common with the law governing the filling of the food basket, but differ significantly in terms of goals to be achieved.
A food basket is needed to determine the minimum amount a person needs per month. And already from this amount the minimum wage, the sizes of various social payments and pensions are calculated. But the legislative act on the list of socially significant products should regulate the prices of the most necessary goods. This excludes the possibility of traders and producers of economic difficulties for illicit enrichment and protects the rights of the most socially disadvantaged groups.
Why do we need a list of socially significant goods?
In practice, the operation of the law is as follows. There are so-called “socially significant goods”, the list of which is officially approved. The state reserves the right to regulate the prices of these products manually, regardless of the market situation.
That is, even in the event of a total collapse of the national currency and huge inflation, the government has the right to limit the maximum cost of bread, potatoes or vegetable oil. Thus, the poorest segments of the population will be guaranteed to be able to purchase food.
List of socially significant goods and consumer basket - differences
Of course, from the above it follows logically that the list of socially significant food products will not include bananas, ham or chocolates. Because if the buyer does not have enough money for potatoes or pasta, then this person will probably remain hungry. But if the consumer is not able to afford chocolate - well, he will drink tea with sugar. Or he will find an additional opportunity to earn money in order to be able to buy his favorite treat.
But the consumer basket regulates the issue of the availability of a living wage for the population in the opposite way. The current prices of products included in the consumer basket are regularly recalculated, and the amount of the subsistence minimum is changed accordingly. That is, if prices rose by 10%, then the cost of living increased by the same 10%.
Product List
As already mentioned, only the most inexpensive and essential products for life fall into the category of “socially significant goods”. The list includes 24 product names, but some of them can be better combined into one category so as not to clutter the list:
- meat (except boneless) - pork, beef, lamb and chicken (except chicken legs);
- frozen fish (only unfinished);
- butter, sunflower and cream;
- milk fat content of 2.5% and 3.2%;
- chicken eggs;
- granulated sugar and salt;
- tea (black long);
- Wheat flour;
- bread and bakery products (from wheat, rye flour and mixtures thereof);
- polished rice;
- buckwheat
- millet;
- potatoes;
- pasta;
- vegetables - onions, carrots, white cabbage (fresh);
- fruits are apples only.
Obviously, these products cannot be called luxurious, sophisticated and diverse, especially the poverty of choice in relation to vegetables and fruits. The meat is represented by an almost complete list of what is sold in the store or on the market, with the exception of a delicious rabbit or some exotic options like venison, and choosing a part with a bone is not at all difficult, and then you can cook the broth from it. The side dishes are also quite diverse, many almost never go beyond the boundaries of this list and feel great. But vegetables and fruits are obviously in short supply, such a diet will not provide a sufficient amount of vitamins. It would be more logical to include seasonal additions in the form of cucumbers, tomatoes, cherries, pears, especially in the southern regions of the country. Perhaps someday new lists of socially important goods will appear that take into account the specifics of specific regions of the Federation and the specifics of their pricing.
