In article
<holman-2407081057100001@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
holman@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Eugene Holman) wrote:
> In article
> <ddfr-625DA6.20304223072008@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, David
> Friedman <ddfr@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> > Someone wrote:
> >
> > > > > Wouldn't be better to ask people who experienced both
> > > > > capitalism and socialism, i.e. the citizens of former
> > > > > USSR and other socialist countries? Do they love
> > > > > capitalism and democracy they have now, or do they
> > > > > want the USSR back?
> >
> > I don't think people who live in the former USSR have yet experienced
> > capitalism.
> >
> > Perhaps you should put the question to people in Estonia or the Czech
> > Republic.
>
> You are a bit confused.
>
> Estonia is part of the former USSR, although it is not, technically
> speaking, a successor state but rather one that was under Soviet
> occupation.
Correct--I spoke imprecisely. I was thinking of the contrast between
parts of the former USSR and its satellites that had, and
those--including Russia proper--that had not, made the transition to an
economy no less capitalist than the western European or U.S. economies.
> In Russia proper, at least the large urban centers such as St.
Petersburg,
> Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibersk, and Vladivostok, are booming
centers
> of industrial-strength robber-baron-type capitalism. If you enter Russia
> through Finland, more than fifty kilometers from the border you see the
> trucks loaded with Jaguars, BMWs, Mercedes-Benz's, and other luxury
> automobiles, the same ones that have made the eight-lane Nevsky
Prospect,
> the main street in St. Peterburg, a case of 24/7 gridlock. The formerly
> shabby border city of Vyborg shows clear signs that the money spreading
> from St. Petersburg is beginning to have an impact on it.
I don't think capitalism is defined by the im****t of luxury automobiles.
--
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
Author of _Harald_, a fantasy without magic.
Published by Baen, in bookstores now
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