Law of Higher Consumption Standards, one of the general economic laws, reflecting the cause and effect relationship beIween the development of social production, on the one hand, and the quantitative growth and qualitative progress of the consumption of society. As the productive forces of society develop new requirements emerge, the old ones undergo change and some of them disappear. The range of requirements widens, they become richer in content, and intellectual and social requirements begin accounting for an ever larger portion in their overall volume. Considerable shifts in the level of mass consumption are seen especially clearly when long periods are analysed. Scientific and technical progress has greatly accelerated this process, shortening the period of transition from one qualitative level of consumption to another. The way in which 193 the law operates is determined by the social system and dominant relations of production. This primarily has to do with the social conditions under which man’s abilities to work develop and which are both the result of and a prerequisite for meeting numerous other needs. Under capitalism, the application of new technology and the introduction of scientific achievements into production engender a need to raise the general educational and vocational training level of the working class. By its very nature, however, the capitalist system makes it impossible to use the opportunities offered by developing science and technology in the interests of elevating the worker. The working people are prevented from taking part in managing production. Monopoly capital blocks their access to the genuine treasures of human civilisation and tries to usurp their free time and to impose upon them the moral values of bourgeois society and "mass culture" standards that aim at inculcating base ideals rather than at elevating man’s intellectual needs. The development of the productive forces of modern capitalist society boosted the production of consumer goods considerably, placing them increasingly within the reach of the working people. Nevertheless, sharp contrasts persist in the forms and level of consumption by different social groups. In socialist society, the law of higher consumption standards has ample scope to operate. Especially broad prerequisites for implementing it are created by mature socialism, under which the possibilities to meet the people’s requirements increase and the requirements themselves also mature. "Concrete concern for concrete person, for his needs and requirements,” the 26th CPSU Congress pointed out, "is the alpha and omega of the Party’s economic policy" (Documents and Resolutions. The 26th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Moscow, 1981, p. 63). Real per capita incomes double in the USSR approximately every 15 years, in other words, in one generation socialist society passes over several times to a qualitatively new level of consumption. Socialism has made socially useful work one of its primary values. Labour is a source for meeting the loftiest requirements of the members of socialist society and for developing and elevating their personalities. Work is becoming increasingly creative and the share of unskilled, hard manual work is being cut in every possible way. An important characteristic of the higher requirements of the members of developed socialist society consists in the fact that the share of intellectual values in consumption is systematically rising and people are becoming ever more conscious and ideologically mature. Profound interest in the affairs of society and active participation in running them are becoming more and more characteristic of the life of a growing number of people. Socialist society has no classes or social groups that would be interested in satisfying their requirements at other people’s expense. This is why all members of society benefit from growing social production and its greater effectiveness. Another characteristic feature of this law under socialism is the gradual social and economic drawing together of the structure of the requirements of different social groups. This is put into effect by bridging the gap in the socio-economic position of people engaged in production and other fields of social life. The implementation of the social policy of the communist parties is further evening out the socio-economic living conditions of the urban population and of rural residents, of the working class, peasants united in cooperatives (collective farmers) and intellectuals, and creating equal opportunities for the development of the physical and intellectual abilities of every man and every social group. The operation of the law under mature socialism is an important stage in shaping the requirements characteristic of the harmoniously developed member of communist society.