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> Apartheid was clearly immoral, but they handed over the keys to a very productive economy, on land with some of the best resources in the world, on which they

by stev-0 4y ago

> Apartheid was clearly immoral, but they handed over the keys to a very productive economy, on land with some of the best resources in the world, on which they had built excellent infrastructure. South Africa was no “very productive economy”. The engine behind the “very productive economy” country was (almost) free labor. People always fail to take that detail into account.. You should also remember that resources went to whites mostly during apartheid. That means around 1/5th of the population… Fixing inequality is really hard

DuskStar 4y ago
Have living standards (literacy, health, etc) improved for the nonwhite population in the past 28 years?
zo1 4y ago
This is such an easy argument to throw around. Almost no way to disprove it or address it, and basically sweeps responsibility away from current failings. Newsflash to you though, there is plenty of cheap labour still floating around in SA. Yet the productive are leaving in droves, whilst the racist (literally) black ruling class in power continue to steal and drive the country into nothingness, perpetually throwing out excuses like you are as to why it can't work now.
vt85 4y ago
shswkna 4y ago
It is a complicated set of circumstances to assess. But SA most certainly was a productive economy, even if you account for the abundance of labour. I can argue that Apple and the iPhone as a product range is riding on cheap labour from Asia. And so are many products the rich world depends on. Would you say the US is not really a productive country because of that?
- perfecthjrjth 4y ago
  Unlike the third world countries, the US is in unique situation: the whole world can exchange their real assets(commodities, finished products, etc) for the US dollar. This luxury is not available to any Asian/African country. That's why the USD is called the world reserve currency.

by stev-0 4y ago

DuskStar 4y ago

Have living standards (literacy, health, etc) improved for the nonwhite population in the past 28 years?

zo1 4y ago

This is such an easy argument to throw around. Almost no way to disprove it or address it, and basically sweeps responsibility away from current failings. Newsflash to you though, there is plenty of cheap labour still floating around in SA. Yet the productive are leaving in droves, whilst the racist (literally) black ruling class in power continue to steal and drive the country into nothingness, perpetually throwing out excuses like you are as to why it can't work now.

vt85 4y ago

shswkna 4y ago

It is a complicated set of circumstances to assess. But SA most certainly was a productive economy, even if you account for the abundance of labour. I can argue that Apple and the iPhone as a product range is riding on cheap labour from Asia. And so are many products the rich world depends on. Would you say the US is not really a productive country because of that?

perfecthjrjth 4y ago
Unlike the third world countries, the US is in unique situation: the whole world can exchange their real assets(commodities, finished products, etc) for the US dollar. This luxury is not available to any Asian/African country. That's why the USD is called the world reserve currency.