Party in the USSR

[Gilrandir]

You seem to still be confused about my point, which isn't that money did not play a role in the exchange of basic goods for individual citizens, but that its usage and function was very limited compared to Western economies outside of the exchange of hard cash for immediate transactions, and that even there living standards and actual consumption were predicated much less on the exchange of cash but on direct transfers from the government to the citizen in the form of goods, services, accomodations, and so on.

I'm afraid my confusion may be explained by your previous posts on the topic, namely:

It surprises many individuals to learn that the Soviet domestic economy operated mostly in kind rather than coin, in exchange of favors and services.

and:

The internal Soviet economy below the level of Gosplan and inter-republic balancing was extremely underdeveloped in terms of the role of monetary currency.

In those you said nothing of comparison to Western economies (although I'm not sure Western economies had such an intense money flow BACK THEN as they do NOW - but I wouldn't claim the opposite either) and direct transfers (instead you said of EXCHANGE OF FAVORS). The bolded parts were the ones I objected to. With the corrections (or explanations) you have just made it now sounds sensible.