Re: your mail

["Anthony P D'Costa" <ecsadc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Anthony P. D'Costa
Associate Professor			Senior Fellow
Comparative International Development	Department of Economics
University of Washington		National University of Singapore
1900 Commerce Street			10 Kent Ridge Crescent
Tacoma, WA 98402-3100 USA		Singapore 119260
Ph: (253) 692-4462
Fax: (253) 692-4414

On Thu, 9 Oct 1997, Louis Proyect wrote:

> Doug Henwood:
>
> >
> >Of course South Korean growth wouldn't have been possible without support
> >from the U.S., and even before the Vietnam war - Korean firms learned how
> >to do large construction projects in part by building bases for the U.S.
> >military in Korea itself. I share your admiration of Cuba, Lou, but it's
> >very hard to hold up North Korea as much of a model for development; yes it
> >did grow for a while, but not all that spectacularly.
> >
>
> The problem in making any kind of comparison at all in this context is that
> is altogether impossible to isolate the countries in question from the Cold
> War and its impact on economic development. For example, on the face of it
> West Germany "proves" that capitalism is superior to socialism, given the
> example of East Germany. At least that was what I was taught in high
> school. What I wasn't taught is that Stalin stuck to the letter of the law
> and prohibited re-industrialization of the East under terms of the treaty
> ending WWII. Furthermore, East Germany was primarily agricultural. Also,
> there was nothing quite like the Marshall Plan for East Germany and other
> European East Bloc nations. The Soviet Union had lost all of its industrial
> infrastructure in the Western 1/3 of the country and the death of millions
> of its citizens.
>
> This is the same sort of discussion we were having a while back on judging
> the success of the East Asian tigers. There are all sorts of mitigating
> circumstances that have to be taken into account when judging Singapore,
> for example. Jim Devine pointed out that a lot of Singapore's success is
> related to the exploitation of Malaysia.


I can't let this one go.  I don't know where Jim D is getting his info. on
Singapore.

As for S Korea, yes aid was important but really when one looks at it the
aid was simply to prevent Korea from becoming 'communist" not for
productive investment.  Syng Man Rhee was a puppet of the US
government annd aid was aimed to prop him up and he too
manipulated the US aid apparatus in the 1950s.  Capitalist
foundations were laid by the Japanese during the colonial period.


Yes, there are all sorts of mitigating factors and some "internal" and
some "external".
>
> One of the unique features of an economic system such as the kind that
> prevailed in East Germany is that it not plunder or pillage other
> countries. Instead it donated trucks, printing presses, medicine,
> fertilizer, etc. to Cuba and the African National Congress in exile.
> Meanwhile, West German banks were bleeding Yugoslavia dry during the 70s.
>
> Louis Proyect
>
>