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Half my family is Chinese. Expansion of the capitalist sector of the economy has transformed that society and raised hundreds of millions out of grinding povert
by simonh 5y ago
Half my family is Chinese. Expansion of the capitalist sector of the economy has transformed that society and raised hundreds of millions out of grinding poverty and into the middle class, including my wife's family and relatives.
Why did this not happen in India, a country which had many advantages over China starting from 30 years ago? It's because the Indian commercial economy is strangled by socialist inspired bureaucracy and anti-competitive special interests. For all the China claims to be communist, it's commercial sector is cut throat capitalism of a particularly raw form. Much rawer that I would like, Chinese people suffer from some of it's excesses, but nevertheless it's produced an incredibly powerful and dynamic economy.
- beaconstudios 5y agoI don't know whether what you say about India is true, or what socialist-inspired special interests are given that socialism is about removing class distinction and thus special interests, but yeah I agree that Maoist policies were a disaster and market reforms were an improvement. But that's not a surprise to anybody, including Marx - who very clearly said that capitalism was better than dictatorship (or monarchy/feudalism, the only kind of dictatorship prominent at the time). It seems to me that India is just full of corruption given they have both billionaires and crushing poverty at the same time. My primary political concern is reducing suffering. Capitalism leads to less suffering than dictatorship, but also leads to things like 996 and Chinese factory conditions, and thus should be either moderated or replaced with market socialism.