Socialism vs Capitalism

[angus]

we'll keep a chair for you to the right of the king  

[angus]

Take a look at one of those composite images of photographs of the earth taken in the night sky.  You'll notice that South Korea looks like an island cut off from the rest of asia.  Need any more evidence?  My neighbor, from France, and I had a long talk about this just yesterday at the pool.  He and I are both pretty sold on capitalism.  Most Americans think there are still three remaining socialist countries.  I got news for you:  Cuba never was, and China is racing toward market economy faster than you can say Mei Guo.  (This is my chief problem with the Kyoto accord on global warming, as an aside.)  Castro's is a castrocentric government, much like Saddam's was a saddamcentric government to which no other label may be so aptly applied.

[angus]

Or, as Neil Peart writes in "The Trees"

There is unrest in the forest
There is trouble with the trees
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas

The trouble with the maples
(and they're quite convinced they're right)
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light
But the oaks can't help their feelings
If they like the way they're made
And they wonder why the maples
Can't be happy in their shade?

There is trouble in the forest
And the creatures all have fled
As the maples scream `oppression!`
And the oaks, just shake their heads

So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights
"the oaks are just too greedy
We will make them give us light"
Now there's no more oak oppression
For they passed a noble law
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet,
Axe,
And saw.

In other words, that graph is cute, and if you want to completely remove the gap by putting us all on the lower curve, elect a socialist congress!

[angus]

and sometimes hedonistic, as in "Passage to Bangkok"

Our first stop is in Bogota
To check Columbian fields
The natives smile and pass along
A sample of their yield
Sweet Jamaican pipe dreams
Golden Acapulco nights
Then Morocco, and the East,
Fly by morning light

We're on the train to Bangkok
Aboard the Thailand Express
We'll hit the stops along the way
We only stop for the best

Wreathed in smoke in Lebanon
We burn the midnight oil
The fragrance of Afghanistan
Rewards a long day's toil
Pulling into Katmandu
Smoke rings fill the air
Perfumed by a Nepal night
The Express gets you there

We're on the train to Bangkok
Aboard the Thailand Express
We'll hit the stops along the way
We only stop for the best

I saw Rush five times in five different venues.  Awesome.

[angus]

I tend to agree with some of that. However you can't group Europe together as one mass. Germany is extremely heavily regulated, which explains it's high unemployment rate. Italy and UK are much less so, although regulation in the UK has increased considerably since 1997. Some of that regulation is good, most bad.

Couldn't agree more.  But let's look at Germany.  What would it take to begin an enterprise in that country.  Imagine the resources it would take and risk you would have to assume.  Why would anyone choose Germany to venture out?  Many people in Germany are anti-corporation, but their policies insure that only big business can survive.  Very interesting.  

The German economy was planned by the CDU (ie: Christian Democrats) not by the SPD.

I was under the impression that it was a coalition between the cdu and the greens that brought about that ghastly economic plan.  Now they need to try to figure out an sensible in-migration policy that will allow them to hire the foreign workers that they're spending their tax dollars to educate.