[ExI] Japan's young turn to Communist Party ...

[Stathis Papaioannou]

2008/10/20 samantha <sjatkins at mac.com>:

> Go read "Economics in One Lesson" then you, being very intelligent, can tell
> us. You will also know that what we have enjoyed in the US and what Japan
> has been running is not remotely "laissez-faire capitalism".  Being
> intelligent I am surprised you would even insinuate that it was.   Japan
> tried to finagle the market by government to get out of the results of its
> strong government involvement in the economic previous to its crash in the
> late 80s.

Japan did extremely well (by any measure of economic success) between
WWII and the late 80's, with, as you point out, quite a lot of
government interference in the economy. Since then, Japan hasn't done
nearly as well, despite moves further towards laissez-faire
capitalism, such as the casualisation of the work force. Another
example is Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. On the other
hand, most Western European social democracies have had high living
standards and slow but consistent growth over decades. So it isn't as
simple as more govt. control => poverty and less govt. control =>
prosperity.



-- 
Stathis Papaioannou