Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Aid or capitalism?

No one contests that what makes hundreds of mil­lions in Asia and Africa destitute is that they cling to primitive methods of production and miss the benefits which the employ­ment of better tools and up-to-date technological designs could be­stow upon them. But there is only one means to relieve their distress—namely, the full adoption of laissez-faire capitalism.
... says Ludwig von Mises in The Anti-Capitalist Mentality (section 4). And how true! Since he wrote this (in 1956), Asia has increasingly coupled itself to the world market, and poverty is there on the run. Africa, however, still more or less clings to socialism, and remains poor despite massive foreign aid and relief. The problems of socialism (poverty, death) can only be relieved by the abolition of socialism.

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