Make Mine Freedom

[Kasz216]

mrstickball said:

Kasz216 said:

richardhutnik said:
Capitalism is yet another -ism also. What I take from the video is that, it isn't an ideology that makes a different in regards to a nation, but what the individuals in the nation do, with their freedom, that makes a difference.

So, you going to also hunt down "A Road to Serfdom in Five Minutes" also?

I'd somewhat agree with that.

I think the system matters, however the systems effectiveness depends largely on the people who it targets.

Socialist programs in Scandanavia when reproduced in countries like France don't work because they have different cultures.  Norway accepts the "social contract" more then France.  

A fully capitalist system in China would likely be less then optinal due to Chinese Culture in which people are encouraged to NOT stand out.   Some second generation chinese people see themselves stopped by there own due to traditional chinese norms not teaching them the people skill qualties needed to succeed and move up into higher level management.

Innovation wouldn't be as strong without a way to integrate it in the whole.

 

It's why modern economic theory pisses me off.  Even the big Macro terms aren't really absolutes, it's all based on the individual people and the cultures from which they arise.

Economic theory should be very regionally specific.

I also agree.

The culture of specific nation(s) dramatically change the landscape of how policies effect the people. Germany has one of the strongest, hardest-working cultures, that promotes significant amounts of thrift and savings. Its allowed them to survive a lot of market downturns, despite having massive government redistributions.

Comparatively, the Japanese also have a culture of thrift, but their economy has stagnated heavily. In their case, it may possibly be due to government mismanagement of stimulus funds, as they are the poster boy for massive interventions having poor successes. But even then, their culture has probably saved them from the full brunt of massive spending, like what we've seen in Spain and Greece.

Having said that, though, the maximum benefit for a populace is when you have very free markets, and a very responsible people. If you have neither, you tend to distort things in one way or another. Free markets and irresponsible people usually yield lots of greedy situations where people get screwed. If you have responsible people without free markets, you have very sub-optimal rates of growth, and that country or culture fails to benefit from their own work.

Well the thing is.... Stimulus funds are naturally less effective the more thrifty your nation is.

One of the big "problems" of the recent US stimulus is that everybody has been paying off their bills or putting their money in savings.

Japanese people being so thrifty mostly just put there money in longerterm bonds.  It's why Japan has such a huge debt market in the first place. 

Additionally Japan apparently has VERY high corruption levels.  To the point where it is so common for government officals to retire and become high ranking corporate figures it has it's own name.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amakudari

Essentially as far as I can tell... there was a huge misuse of public funds in general in Japan and VAST overuse caused by borrowing due to well... a super conservative thrifty people willing to buy government bonds.  Well and government run pension funds willing to buy goverment bonds.  (I swear I don't understand why it's legal for the government to buy it's own bonds.)