Quầy rau cải giá chính thức (Vegetable Stand Official Price) - ?? (1977)

Quầy rau cải giá chính thức

Cải chưa về.

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Mai vô! Mai dô! Rau cải Đà Lạt tươi rói mới về đây

Vegetable stand official price

Greens haven't arrived

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Come tomorrow! Come morrow! Fresh Đà Lạt vegetables will be here

 

nguồn: Tin Sáng 27 tháng 2 1977

The three women at the left are "mậu dịch" - approved traders getting their product from the government. 

The woman at the right is "hàng chui" or black market.

The approved traders have no produce to sell, possibly because the black market woman has cornered the market. 

While the cartoon is meant to show disapproval of the fat and happy black marketeer, it also demonstrates the implausibility of a government controlled market delivering the products that people want and need. You can try to control the market and fix the price, but if nobody delivers the product at the government's price, the government has nothing to sell and there is nothing for people to buy.