Quote:
Originally posted by Spanky
What you are failing to grasp is that free markets and democracy are intertwined. One doesn't last very long without the other. Countries that head down the socialist path end up becoming dictatorships because that is the only way they can survive. Cuba is a perfect example. Burma is another. Venezuela is a perfect modern example. Countrys with growing economies either stay democracies, or if they are not, turn into democracys. If you want a foreign policy that focuses on turning countrys into democracy's you need to focus on economics.
|
I know we've had this conversation before, and I'm not sure what I can add to what we said then, or to taxwonk's suggestion that it's not OK to torture and rape and murder people in the name of free markets.
This century has seen plenty of dictatorships that did not simply turn into democracies. Some obvious examples include Germany, Italy, Japan, the Soviet Union, and China. Meanwhile, people may choose, in a democratic fashion, to abandon free markets. Take, for example, Venezuela, Chile, or -- according to many conservatives, Sweden and the rest of Europe, until this week at least, although coverage I've seen suggests that French voters want their markets to be less free, not more.
And then I return to the idea -- bizarre to a conservative these days, I'm sure -- that it's not OK to torture and rape and murder people in the name of free markets.
