Sunday, September 28, 2014
The High Cost of Control
According to Robert Conquest's book, "Harvest of Sorrow", a total of 6 million people ultimately died from the Russian famine of the early 1930s. This is a number that is greater than all of the deaths from World War 1 and it was a disaster that was caused almost exclusively by government; the Soviet socialist government, more specifically (the fact that the government cut prices for agricultural commodities and the end result of this was far less production, the fact that the amount of grain and other commodities seized by the government eventually quintupled, the fact that the government forced millions of peasants on to collective farms where a significant percentage of them were driven into mining and factory work, the fact that most agricultural commerce was essentially outlawed, etc.). I mean, I know that the statists still apparently think that an economy (with its billions and billions of various permutations) can be run more efficiently through a strong central government, bureaucrats, etc. but if this isn't a wake up-call then nothing is.
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2 comments:
Wouldn't it be more constructive to study successful democratic socialist nations rather than a totalitarian dictitorial communist nation.
Perhaps, and I am just putting it on the table w/out recommending, if we were to take what works in successful DS economies and infused them into our own we may see greater growth in the middle class, a more vibrant economy, and actually STRENGTHEN capitalism.
No-one in their right state of mind believes the USSR and it's model worked or ever would.
I think that we all know what works; free markets, the free movement of goods, services, labor, and capital, sensible and sane regulations, competitive tax rates, a rejection of crony capitalism, a streamlining of licensing, etc..............As far as European countries go, I really like the way that the Baltic states are being run and of the Western European economies, I would probably give the edge to Denmark. Yes, they have high individual tax rates but their regulations are less strict than ours and their corporate tax rate is lower.
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