Re: Postrel on liberalization

[Alan G Isaac <aisaac@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> At  8/25/2002, Alan G Isaac wrote:
>>  The history of the human race has almost
>> everyone living in poverty and dying young throughout the
>> ages.  What is historically extraordinary is two things: the
>> explosion in the human population over the last few hundred
>> years, and the even more recent emergence in capitalist
>> economies of a true middle class with a material standard of
>> living that has no historical parallel.

On Sun, 25 Aug 2002 13:47:27 -0400 Alan Cibils <abcibils@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> You should probably qualify the statement about the emergence of a middle
> class, restricting it primarily to the US, Europe, and a few other areas
> (such as Japan). For much of Africa, Latin America, and Asia  the middle
> class has yet to emerge or, as is the case with Argentina and  other
> countries under the influence of the IMF/WB,  is rapidly disapearing.


Hi Alan,

I intended the relevant restriction to be indicated by
my use of the word "capitalist", although I suppose
we could open a discussion at that point.

Cheers,
Alan