On 27-Jun-06, at 9:41 AM, Mahesh Murthy wrote:
It's interesting that a vast majority of "poor countries" or LDC's as
they're called don't practice socialism or communism in reality but
are
Really? Not the last time I checked:
N. Korea - Commie.
China - Commie (diluted with bits of capitalism to keep it viable)
India - Socialist. [The right to property is not a fundamental right
in India]
Most African Countries - Socialist or Communist "People's Republics"
I couldn't find a list of the top impoverished countries (didn't look
too hard),
but if you do find such a list, I bet you will find no capitalist
countries in
it, and not even countries that were capitalist in the recent past.
either tinpot dictatorships or not-particularly-representational
democracies.
Either way, not capitalist. Dictatorship is functionally equivalent
to any
other tyrannical setup, such as socialism or communism, as are
"not-particularly-representational democracies" or indeed any democracy
where the arbitrary power of the largest mob is not limited and
subordinated
to individual rights through an effective constitution.
(Not unlike that bastion of capitalism, the US?)
The US is no bastion of capitalism. It may have been in the past, but it
definitely is not any longer. And its loss of fundamental capitalist
values
dovetails perfectly with the rise of illiteracy, crime, inflation and
poverty
there.
The US remains one of the most productive societies in the world because
of the inertia of the tremendous momentum built up by its
capitalistic past,
and because it still retains some features of its capitalistic roots,
including
more economic freedom than is to be found in pretty much any other
country
in the world, and a relative openness to inbound immigration.
These countries typically spend more on defence and servicing debt
than on
social services (remind you of, umm... somebody?)
Socialism does NOT imply or require (or in practice translate to)
spending on
social services. Socialism implies only the lack of private property
rights.
[From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism]
Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines or political
movements that envisage
a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of
wealth are subject
to social control. As an economic system, socialism is usually
associated with state
or collective ownership of the means of production.
Also interesting that the recipe prescribed by the UN and other
people to
save the children in these countries (e.g.:
http://www.unicef.org/newsline/01pr44.htm) typically involves
investing in
"basic social services" like education, health, water and sanitation.
The free market does a way better job of providing all of the above
(if left free to
do so) than any government bureaucracy ever has or ever will.
Evidence for
this abounds.
Also, the UN is just about the most rabidly socialist organization on
the planet.
They talk unadulterated hypocritical crap all the time, and are
indeed one
of the principal proponents of the idiotic idea that handouts to
third world countries
are a good way to solve the problems of those countries. This idea
is, after
all, what keeps them in business.
UN restaurants in Geneva have ten-thousand-dollar bottles of wine on
the menu,
which presumably make it easier to think about all those poor
starving children in
Ethiopia.
#!
