|
Breaking economic principles down to a level so basic that they are meaningless.
Quote:
Originally posted by Spanky
How about India? They have been democratic since Independance in 1948. There per capita income today is $450 a year. Pretty much the same as independance, thanks to their highly controlled economy. Do you think the people of Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Chile, Malaysia, or Taiwan (most of these countrys had a lower GNP than India in 1948) would have been better off had they been under a socialist democracy like India, or did they actually benefit by having, often brutal, CIA supported right wing dictators?
|
I think there's no way to answer that question, because governments do a range of things -- build sewers, start wars, etc. -- that people care about beyond per capita income. This is the reason that left-wing governments get elected in places like Brazil (to take a recent example). A real respect for democracy demands that when the people vote to place some other objective above their future GNP, you let them do that, instead of subverting their government and replacing it with a brutal junta.
If you're not quite getting the principle I have in mind, club can refer to the right passages in the most recent State of the Union speech.
__________________
“It was fortunate that so few men acted according to moral principle, because it was so easy to get principles wrong, and a determined person acting on mistaken principles could really do some damage." - Larissa MacFarquhar
|
