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To: glenn_a who wrote (43601)	12/18/2003 10:29:26 AM
From: Seeker of Truth	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74559

Hello Glenn_a, Your "gangster capitalism" is a wonderful term, new to me. Actually the so called crony capitalism is often really gangster capitalism. At least it is so in Japan. There is a kind of confederation of three or four groups. 1 powerful members of the ruling party. 2 government officials who obey group 1. 3 gangsters with guns. 4 capitalists, who may be outside of the first three groups but friendly with and trusted by all or else they may be members of those three groups. Gangster capitalism is very important in Japan. Are there any China experts out there who would be willing to predict the future of capitalism in China from this aspect, i.e. the degree of gangsterization? The best, Malcolm

To: glenn_a who wrote (43601)	12/18/2003 12:25:21 PM
From: AC Flyer	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74559

glenn: >>BTW, "free markets", and which society has implemented this golden ideal? Certainly not the U.S. and the Europeans. If it hasn't really been implemented, how do you measure correlation efficiencies of a "ficticious" ideal?<< Hair-splitting. Which of these two countries has wannabe immigrants lining up by the million: (a) the USA? (b) N. Korea? What is the per capita GNP of the USA? N. Korea? QED. >>As a framework for transactional efficiency, a "free market" model makes a lot of sense IMO.<< Yes. >>As an unregulated system unbalanced by public-service ethic committed to good governance capable of counter-balancing the profit motive, well, welcome gangster capitalism.<< Well, you make a good point here. Some level of government and regulation will always be necessary. It's just a question of how much. A vast gulf exists between my view that Government's role should be to maintain national security and the rule of law plus a few other essentials, and little else, and the view of the European socialists and neo-Marxists (e.g. Ray Duray) that everything should be regulated. The particular focus of socialist regulation, btw, is the systematic confiscation and transfer of wealth. As you so rightly point out, even in the USA we are well down this path. My nightmare is that democracy devolves over the next hundred years into a global system of enforced mediocrity, where social and economic conformity is rigidly enforced by the tyranny of the majority over the wealth-creating minority, to the impoverishment of all. I've seen the future, and it is Sweden. Long considered a "socialist paradise," Sweden is actually a country slowly slipping into economic paralysis.........The government's share of the GDP has passed 70%, unemployment has doubled to 7.6% since 1990, and, thanks to the country's liberal vacation and leave policies, workers can theoretically earn up to 570 paid days off a year. (That's not a typo: 570 a year.)....Eat The Rich...P.J. O'Rourke