Re: China

[michael <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Marty's note is exactly the sort of a discussion I would have liked to have
seen in the earlier discussions about market socialism.  Rather than making
absolute statements or talking about examples where emotion runs ahead of
rationality, he offers an excellent case study.

One question I have about the Chinese story: how much was the initial
rhetoric about market socialism just a ruse for people who appreciated the
opening to get rich quickly? If they were sincere market socialists, then
the Chinese example would tend to corroborate my own belief that the
incentives of markets are the dominant genes of market socialism and the
socialist genes are recessive -- maybe a poor metaphor, but I mean that the
market mentality tends to crowd out socialist values under such a scheme.

Justin, from our earlier discussions, did not seem to accept my
interpretation, but I'm not sure that China vindicates me.

Robert McIntyre wrote about market socialism in Bulgaria and East Germany,
in which he tried to show that state firms to spun off entrepreneurial
businesses to experiment in order to investigate consumer tastes.  They did
not have profit incentives so there were not exactly market socialism, but
they did take advantage of potentially useful properties of markets.

One other Chinese question: as in the Russia, much of the successful
entrepreneurial (can you use that word to describe the thuggery-corruption
infested system that exists today in Russia?) drew upon the outstanding
socialist educational system.  I'm astounded when I meet Chinese academics
to seek a well-trained they are.


--

Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Chico, CA 95929
530-898-5321
fax 530-898-5901