What Andrew Batson apparently overlooks is that unlike Europe in the 1960's under democratic socialism, the Chinese government controls the "
commanding heights" of the Chinese economy. According to Lenin, this is a defining characteristic of socialism. Interesting otherwise.
Andrew Batson's Blog
China in the 2020s is not France in the 1960sAndrew
It's amusing how desperate people are to view China's economy as 'different' to what has occurred in the past. Look up the ratio of government spending to GDP for the US, and you'll discover how significant it was/is, year after year.
ReplyDelete'Commanding heights' is an outdated term. We now refer to it as government regulation. The state doesn't have to own select industries to control them. For ideological reasons, a government will pretend that something is privatized, when its operation is regulated. For public utilities, even their rate of profit is regulated.
And what about France in the 1960s?
We still don't know why it came close to having a revolution, presumably 'socialist' in nature.
The US government keeps this quiet, but many of its public services are heavily regulated. I don't know how true this is today, though.
DeleteDemocracy and Regulation: How the Public Can Govern Essential Services, by Greg Palast, Jerrold Oppenheim, Theo MacGregor - 2003
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt18fs62x
“ For ideological reasons, a government will pretend that something is privatized, when its operation is regulated.”
ReplyDeleteSame as we have the OPEC+ cartel… meanwhile all these libertarian morons are always going all around saying “it’s a free market!”…