Re: NACLA on RCTV

[Walt Byars <wbyars@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is the second time in the last few days that David Shemano has made a
strong, controversial (on here) assertion without providing any evidence
or elaboration. Since he provides no argument it is difficult to
critically respond to him, but his last comment is pretty blatantly false.
There are lots of examples of land redistribution increasing agricultural
productivity, including in Zimbabwe (I am not referring to the land
redistributions of this decade which David is probably referring to. I
haven't seen evidence that they  were harmful, though. I may be wrong but
it seems people assume those land reforms had negative consequences since
they coincided with a bunch of bad stuff happening there). Even if land
reforms reduce food production, why would this imply that starvation is
more likely. Reduced food production makes starvation more likely, but a
more egalitarian distribution makes it less likely.