Re: RE: capitalist versus socialist progress

[Brad De Long <delong@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>  >On Behalf Of Louis Proyect
> >  These achievements were so remarkable that even Western
> >  economists began to
> >  speak of the "North Korean Miracle." In fact, according to the economist
> >  Joan Robinson, writing in 1965, "All economic miracles of the
> >  postwar world are put in the shade by these achievements."
>
> If true,

But we know that Joan Robinson lived in a fantasy land with respect
to the Cultural Revolution...

> and likely so in light of impressive state mobilization of the
> economy in Russia and other countries, the question becomes whether state
> planning is effective in mobilizing labor and capital when raw quantitative
> production is needed, but has serious deficiencies that ultimately become
> fatal when qualitative gains are needed


Except that North Korea today does not need "qualitative gains." Its
people are eating tree bark, for God's sake.

Is there any reason not to conclude that combining the delights of
High Stalinism with those of hereditary monarchy is a really bad idea?


Brad DeLong