3 ms·
You seem to be talking of closed borders, not capital restrictions. Britain and some other Western nations had capital controls until around the 1980s, without
by NeedMoreTea 7y ago
You seem to be talking of closed borders, not capital restrictions.
Britain and some other Western nations had capital controls until around the 1980s, without using them to oppress people. The millions who fled revolutionary China, without their capital, seeded Hong Kong and Taiwan with the huge population growth that made them what they are today.
- lacker 7y agoWestern nations have used capital controls to oppress people. The Nazis, for example, used capital controls to both oppress people and to help fund their war machine via monetary policy. e.g. https://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre1940110100 https://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqr...
- NeedMoreTea 7y agoCapital controls don't rule out freedom, nor rule in oppression. I doubt you'd suggest Switzerland, the US, Britain and the rest were oppressive by mere dint of having capital controls before Bretton Woods was destroyed. Giving the Nazi example of an oppressive regime being oppressive doesn't change that - they were oppressive via nearly all the other tools of free democracies too. Property seizures and taking away all freedom of movement was far more symptomatic of being oppressive. OP's China example is a place that is oppressive in many ways, but far from being one of the main means of oppression, capital control has been liberalised hugely in recent years. Freedom of movement, to emigrate, to demonstrate, etc on the other hand...