From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Tue Jul 05 2005 - 21:48:59 BST
Arlo,
> Unless you are making the claim that the *only* difference between NK and
> the US is its degree of CEP?
No, not the only difference. But it's a vital difference. Let free
enterprise flourish and the other restrictions will eventually fall by the
wayside, as demonstrated by comparing the stagnant economy of China under
Mao with the China of today.
> Are you suggesting that the trade barriers employed by the US and other
> nations have not had any role in harming Cuba's economy?
Castro and his friends love to blame the U.S. for Cuba's lousy economy.
The problem is not the embargo. It's the command economy which prohibits
private enterprise and ownership of property. The U.S. should not
subsidize such a regime.
> If you're establishing the proposition, Platt, that less CEP results in a
> more-free, higher Quality society for the majority of citizens, then you'll
> have to find examples that indicate this is so, whether historically or
> not.
I have, with the examples of NK and Cuba. I can't help it if you don't
accept those examples.
> To date, all you have suggested is that the lesser degree of CEP in the US
> is responsible for our society being more free than NK. You do not believe
> her military dictatorship has any bearing on this at all. You've also
> suggested that a lesser degree of CEP has made us more-free than Cuba,
> suggesting along the way that trade restrictions (against a tiny, island
> economy) has had no bearing on the success or failure of that economy.
>
> Is that an adequate sum so far?
See comments above.
> Can you provide an example that is not a brutal military dictatorship, or a
> tiny, island economy subjected to global trade barriers?
Laos, North Korea and China are still centrally planned economies. But,
but even in those communist countries, free markets are on the rise and
should be encouraged. Can you provide examples of command economies
which are not "brutal military" dictatorships? (Are there any other kind?)
> >Here are the measures I would use, borrowed from Dinesh D'Souza's book,
> >"What So Great About America."
> >
> >Standard of living for the ordinary guy
> >
> >Respect for work and trade
> >
> >Social equality
> >
> >Active, long lifespan
> >
> >Future open to the young
> >
> >Equality of rights
> >
> >Minimum of religious and ethnic conflict
> >
> >Foreign policy devoted to liberation, not conquest
>
> Can you show me statistics or measures that indicate that the US scores
> higher on these marks than Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Japan? Or are you
> just going on patriotic "gut instinct" that America is better than everyone
> else in these measures?
Going by the observations of Denesh D'Sousa, a foreign observer.
Statistics never tell the whole story. For his observations see:
www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-dsouza070203.asp
Furthermore, keep in mind Pirsig's observation that socialist cities are
"dull places."
Platt
>
>
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