EVERY COUNTRY IS SOCIALIST AND EVERY COUNTRY IS CAPITALIST!
POLICY ADVICE NOTE 306-26 Re: GOLDING’s “SOCIALISM TURN” NEED NOT BE TO MANLEY’s
By Professor Gilbert Morris
Socialism and Capitalism are the two Ghosts of political science and economics: people who think they believe in either speak the resolve of ole time religion about the virtues of one and the vices of the other: both of them - as I would tell even PhD students - talk mostly nonsense.
EVERY COUNTRY IS SOCIALIST AND EVERY COUNTRY IS CAPITALIST!
Britain made its money by Elizabeth I sending Sir Francis Drake - her cousin - to steal the resources which were stolen from native peoples by the Dutch, Portuguese and the Spanish. Colonialism and enslavement is literally theft in a grand scale. In Britain’s entry into China they became the largest drug dealers in the history of the universe, selling Opium to destabilise China; which succeeded for a time…just as the U.S. did in the Afghanistan invasion; facilitating the Northern Alliance in selling Opium!
In 1898, for no reason the U.S. invaded Philippines and Cuba, stole Puerto Rico and Hawaii…tried to steal Panama. Controlled much of south and Central America all for a few families. Senator Mitt Romneys family made their money through Bain Capital in this manner as did the Dulles family etc. They stopped to invade Haiti and steal its resources. And since WII - if you think that’s too far in time - Britain wanted Iranian oil. So it got the U.S. to overthrow a democratic Iran to steal its oil. The entire Cold War was a psych-op in which it was a hot war for third world resources. During this time, the US, UK, Canada, Japan, France-Germany all used protectionism to prevent competition and violence against third world nations that sought to advance.
Where is the capitalism there?
Manley’s socialism was half baked nonsense…much as we all loved him. Utter nonsense. Mishmash of pan-Africanism, misunderstood Marxism, all run in a plantation colonial economic model, he never bothered to change. And that’s the difference between those post-colonial nations that thrived and those that didn’t: the ones that thrived changed the system they inherited; just as Boukman Dutty - a Jamaican - told Toussaint L’Ouverture in 1791!
The best countries in the world are social democracies of varying degrees and none of them are in the G7: Switzerland, Singapore, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Nw Zealand (Cayman is amongst their number as a well run country…but less of a social experiment).
In everyone of those countries, you would have a better life than wherever you are now in the Caribbean. Lee Kuan Yew insisted that he was a Socialist and a limited Social Democrat. People forget, Malaysia was supposed to be the name of the Malaya-Singapore Federation: SIA added to Malaya was for Singapore: the Malaysia!
The reason Singapore and Malaysia split is because Lee Kuan Yew demanded that all policies must life everyone at the same time and Malaysia wanted dominant ethnic groups to dominate. Lee Kuan Yew said no! He insisted that the only for a small nation to become exceptional was for everyone to share in the propensity. Singapore is not a Christian nation or a religious one. Yet it adheres to Matthew 25 gospel - feed the hungry, clothed the naked, visit the sick and the poor - more than any Christian nation on earth. The U.S. tears itself apart over affirmative action, but Lee Kuan Yew built Affirmative Action into its constitution, with the goal that everyone must share in prosperity.
Just yesterday, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced that between birth and 18, every Singapore family will receive $70,000 per child. Many families in the Caribbean don’t earn that amount in 10 years. Singapore got its independence about the same time as Jamaica. Yet Singapore is nearly 40 times richer than all of CARICOM combined…when we take its GDP and its Sovereign Fund together with its national savings GLC and Provident Fund. This is all from a socialist nation that is clearly capitalist in the best way…as is Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Sweden all of which are 10 times of more richer than all of CARICOM and has a better quality of life and standard of living better health, education and lower crime than all of Europe, the U.S. and the Caribbean.
So if Hon. Mr. Golding MP is talking about Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Estonia, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands socialism, get the old Soviet Union out of your head.
I challenge my students on this all the time. I say what make you say China is Communist…what does it mean. China has better education and healthcare, cleaner better cities, greater technologies, better infrastructure, people own their homes and pay property tax once when they buy it..and live in low crime… areas with parks and increasingly alternative energy…so what is communist. They say well, it’s the politics. I say alright. I grant you that in the Politburo, leaders are appointed, not elected. But China has more elections than the rest of the world combined and those leaders have to perform. Every member of XI Jinping’s cabinet has managed a province larger than the U.S. and successfully.
This does not mean we can’t debate the merits of systems. But in most cases, it’s the mix of systems we are debating without admitting it.
If Hon. Mr. Golding MP is referring to social democracies which are the best managed most prosperous, most democratic nations in the world - with Singapore leading the way - he should say so!
