[DEBATE] : SA: a capitalist view

[Doug Henwood]

On May 12, 2007, at 3:01 PM, Martin Hart-Landsberg wrote:

> Notice I said the so called tiger experience is losing its luster.

Again I have to ask you - compared to what? Sweden? Heilbroner's  
slightly imaginary Sweden? A fully imaginary socialist state? What?

> All this suggests that we are living through a period of ever more  
> ruthless capitalist accumulation.  This is something that you have  
> also pointed out.  We certainly do not want to join with those  
> supporters of capitalism and legitimate their attempts to paint a  
> false picture of what capitalist success means for working people.   
> Their goal is to encourage people to adopt the policies of the East  
> Asian countries (as they interpret them, of course) with the  
> implication that they too can enjoy similar East Asian gains.  Not  
> only is that not really possible, but even the gains that did exist  
> are fast disappearing (for working people that is).

Sure there are propagandistic uses of SK, but there are  
propagandistic uses of nearly everything. The bourgeoisie would have  
you believe it's just a few steps from indicative planning to the gulag.

If you were asked to advise the government of a poor country - i.e.,  
one without Hugo Chavez' $50 billion oil income - what would you say?  
I know I'd advise studying SK's experience very closely -  
disciplining capital, repressing finance, gaining control over the  
foreign sector, planning leading sectors and linkages among them. Of  
course, economic models aren't easily transferrable, but you've got  
to look for precedents somewhere. Sure, SK's growth is slower now  
than it was before 1997-98 - that's partly the heritage of that  
crisis, and partly the result of having reached a certain level of  
development after which gains get a lot harder. The same happened to  
Japan and even Italy.

So what would you advise?

Doug