Re: The right to vote, free speech, freedom of assembly, and the right to form trade-unions are meaningless whenyour liveliŠthe struggle for food, money to buy ne cessities, your children's schools, and the control of flood whi ch isa p

On Thu, 15 May 2008 23:03:01 +0800, rst0wxyz wrote
(in article 
<cc010f1f-ef07-4960-b15d-4572aa18abf4@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>):
 
> On May 14, 11:26=A0pm, Jim Walsh <jimNOwalsSPA...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> On Thu, 15 May 2008 09:49:04 +0800, rst0wxyz wrote
>> (in article
>> <de462654-031b-4c8a-bc2a-c4eac8037...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>):
>> 
>>> Today, the right to vote, elections, freedom of speech, freedom of the
>>> press,... are a luxury China can not afford to take.
>> 
>> Strong evidence exists that poor but free countries do better than poor
>> countries without freedom.
>> 
>> Compare Thailand (with its fragile but working democracy) and Burma.
These=
> 
>> two countries are similar in every respect but one -- freedom.
> 
> Thailand is also a third world country in every respect.

Far ahead of Burma, because of its democracy.



>> One is much richer than the other.
> 
> Not much more.

Thailand easily adopted westernization and opened its economy through a 
policy of free enterprise; Myanmar rejected Western ways, and chose to 
isolate their nation from the global economic system. As a result,
Thailand's 
per capita GNP rose almost $3,000 in 30 years. Myanmar's per capita GNP 
raised only $600 in the same amount of time. Only the presence of the
black 
market has made the economy of Myanmar tolerable.

http://maps.unomaha.edu/Peterson/funda/Notes/Notes_Exam3/MyanmarThailand.html

Thailand's per capita annual GNP (PPP) $9,200 (2006 est)
Burma's per capita annual GNP (PPP) $1,700 (2005 est.)

Seems to be a factor of 4.

>> Compare North and South Korea. These two parts of one country are very
very
>> similar (identical in culture, language, etc). One is an economic
basket 
case
>> and cannot feed its people. The other has an annual per capita GNP of
nearly
>> 25,000 US dollars (PPP calculation).
>> 
>> Which one is richer? The free-er one.
>> 
>> Freedom is not a luxury.
> 
> South Korea had its dictator****p, and like the Chinese, the South
> Koreans would flee South Korea given the chance.  Many educated South
> Koreans come to the U.S. to work as house cleaners.

Comparatively free-er, at all times. And substantially richer.

-- 
Love, Jim
(I often delete parts of the previous post and I often remove excessive 
crossposts.)


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