Richest 1% own half the world's wealth.It's similar with countries. Few dozen are rich, the rest are mostly poor, trapped in debts and are exploited by imperialist. Yet few non-European countries seem to have escaped the trap of poverty. The countries are Taiwan,Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Chile. I am curious if someone could explain why these few lucky countries are so rich and advanced, as well as point out some troubles and hardships proletariat face.
'pearls' of capitalism discussion
Carter Bennett
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Hunter Ward
It really depends on the country.
Boatloads of US aid and opening up to foreign investment (manufacturing, etc.) which eventually allowed them to develop.
Tax haven, strong non-cucked government, and central planning.
Joined the ranks of the imperialist powers in the 19th century thanks to a government that resisted colonialism and used developmentalist policies. Also played Euros (particularly Anglos and Russians) off against one another to their benefit.
Buttloads of US aid.
Lots of natural resources (particularly minerals and precious metals).
Daniel Clark
Bonus points if those countries used concepts associated with left wing politics like central planing. I have read that Kuomintang and People's Action Party have used Leninist organisation. I also read that Taiwan and South Korea used central planing to industrialize. I also read on Zig Forums that Singapore has large public sector and state owns most of housing and most of land where factories stand.
Obviously most, if not all of of these countries have received bloody american gibs to finance their progress, something poorer countries like Congo, Indonesia or Bolivia did not receive, but I am still wondering how they did achieve the success that they have achieved.
Jordan Thomas
In Japan, a heavy portion of the populace is trapped in their own apartments buying into hypercapitalism. Salarymen kill themselves on the daily, being forced to both work AND drink with their bosses for their entire 16hr day. Alienation is at an all-time high despite the occasional anime with a vaguely leftist message like "STOP IMPERIALISM"
Luis Lewis
Thank you! Do you have any sources on Chile's natural resources and Singapore central planing?
Alexander Rogers
Countries in the Global South that manage to be extraordinarily richer than their neighbours are usually small, US-aligned tax havens and finance centers. That, or oil. Singapore is a city state, so are most of the UAE. The richest countries per capita are all small, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Monaco, etc.
Large scale centers of industrial and agricultural production have a much harder road to take. India, China, Brazil, etc. all used significant elements of command economies to improve their economies, and still are somewhat lacking behind Western development and have grim outlook to actually pass the threshold to become a First World nations. The exception being China, a country that has 50% of the economy in public property, highly regulated private business and is governed by communists, or Kerala in India, high rate of public ownership, regulated private business and governed by communists. Really makes you fucking think.
Angel Howard
Yeah, that's why I didin't ask anything about Countries like slave kingdom of Qatar. Correct on Kerala, it has highest life expectancy, literacy and overall HDI in India. Vietnam has higher life expectancy that other large ASEAN countries. North Korea has higher life expectancy that american vassals like Pakistan and Indonesia. Cuba has higher life expectancy than even Chile and other Caribbean nations.
Sebastian Lee
Sorry I don’t, but I know that Chile has a lot of copper which formed the basis of their economy for a long time. As for Singapore, it should be noted that when I say “central planning” I mean developmentalism. Capitalism actually can do a good job of developing and enriching poor countries as long as they aren’t being drained by colonialism, debt-slavery, etc.
Ayden Morris
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Grayson Howard
They're all US puppet states
Jeremiah Peterson
If Japan and Korea didn't have proximity to the two largest communist nations on the planet at the time they'd be in just as sorry a state.
After Japan got flattened by WW2, the US basically instituted a Japanese New Deal (actually designed by the same folks in charge of FDR's New Deal), which was strictly enforced by MacArthur. In fact, this is part of the reason Japan did as well as it did, because it adopted many of the pro-worker policies that the US had at the time.
99% of the time when you come across a country that isn't in "The West" that is capitalist and well off, it's either because they serve a useful end of Western capitalism, like Singapore. It sits smack dab in the middle of the busiest trade route on the planet.
Even Western Europe is only in such a good position because of the real popularity of communism and the very real danger of people overthrowing their bourgeois governments in favor of the SU post WW2. The US didn't dump billions of dollars in aid into it for nothing.
Leo Roberts
Myth pushed by lolbergs
It's no better than the rest of SA
Austin Rogers
Are you chileans by any chance?
Adam Baker
Well my main concern here is that Chile has pretty big GDP per capita and big HDI, something which brainlets care about.
Jason Wilson
The """Miracles""" of Chile and the Asian tigers are myths that originated from a time when, in the Western world, it was normal to exaggerate or even outright fabricate evidence in favor of laissez-faire capitalism and go unchallenged in mainstream politics. In reality, Pinochet's free market politics were more catastrophic than any of Allende's plans and the success of the Asian countries was due to strong state influence in economic development.
It is true that capitalism does benefit underdeveloped nations in the short term, but lolberts tend to be massive hypocrites that think social authoritarianism is okay when they do it, because they think private property is the only fundamental right. Le ebin helicopter ride man and Singapore's insane cultural repression are objective evidence that human dignity does not, in fact, stem naturally from private property rights. Lolberts either stick their heads in the sand over it, or embrace it and become fashies.
Nolan Watson
This is correct. Before American investments Japan was poorer than Poland.
Biggest proof is that west investment into few countries that they did invest is colonialism. liberals won't admit it but even us had colonies, where they engaged in genocide, and most of them are still underdeveloped. It wasn't untill communism became a thread when colonial empires gave a little bit back, however they gave a little to small nations. A lot of western vassals during the cold war like Pakistan,Indonesia,Congo and others are still very underdeveloped even thought there were pro western capitalist nations.
Best former american colony? Republic of Cuba
Best former french colony? Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Best former uk colony? Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
Landon Wright
Literally all four of these are foreign (mostly western) backed financial hubs with the exception of maybe Taiwan which straddles having both a large manufacturing economy for electronics, textiles, etc. and being a financial hub. Two of them (Taiwan and Singapore) had for the longest time a mostly centrally planned economy with the other two (Japan and South Korea) having a foreign assisted/planned economy with direct US military and monetary support. Japan is also still not allowed to maintain an offensive military, relying pretty much entirely on the US who eats up most of the cost.
Jack Fisher
high average national I Q predicted this
Charles Richardson
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Elijah Murphy
Does anyone know if Japan,Taiwan,Singapore or South Korea has any natural resources?
Justin Hughes
Singapore has none. Don’t know about Taiwan or South Korea. Japan used to have none, however recently discovered a lot on an unpopulated island that they control in the middle of the Pacific. Fun fact this Island used to be a US territory, but it was given to Japan.
asia.nikkei.com
Joseph Reyes
Korea might have reserves of REEs but there needs to be exploration, but the reason for their wealth in East Asia is likely as a result of not having major resource deposits rather than having them.
Wyatt Scott
I prefer the version that the reason behind their wealth is american't investment to combat communism.
Ian Watson
Well that would be right about Japan, SK, and Taiwan but not really Singapore: Singapore was kinda a wildcard that nobody expected to go the way it did.
Oliver Russell
Singapore is rich because they implemented central planing and have a government run by engineers, have conscription, centralized government, control over foreign investment and activities, fully urbanized, and pro labor culture. There a technocratic utopia. They also have ZERO Catholics and a Protestant work ethic which helps.
Xavier Parker
32% of workforce as of 2014. It's worth mentioning that a good chunk of the private sector consists of 'government linked companies' that are effectively state-owned, allowing things like public transport to be 'privatised' and milked for the benefit of the porkies in chief
Singapore is located on a major trade route and is a nice spot for a port. I'd call that a natural resource, of a sort.
Run by generals, economists, lawyers, and doctors
The unions are run by the state and work actively to strip worker's rights and hand more power to employers
6.7%, actually, with similar representation in Parliament. Protestants are disproportionately represented in Parliament, but most denominations here are thoroughly infested by charismatics, pentecostals, and so on.
John Torres
even if you're right that still illustrates the same point, they are much more academically oriented
he said pro labor not pro labor union. he's just talking about the fact that you're much more encouraged to work unlike America where most of our economy are run by demented people who inherited there wealth and masturbate in their offices all day and appoint whoever cons them the most as their directors.
Aiden Rogers
As compared to? I would argue that it's not hugely different from other governments that are largely composed of lawyers, career politicians, businessmen, and the odd doctor. One oddity, however, is the retirement age of military officers at 50, after which senior officers can comfortably expect senior posts in government, or government linked companies, regardless of their actual competence. For instance, the beleaguered subway system has been helmed by two successive Chiefs of Defense, following the disastrous CEO-ship of a VP with retail experience. Wouldn't a technocratic, academically inclined administration tap people with actual experience in turning around under-maintained subway systems?
Thanks for clearing that up.
Personally, I would say the same of much of the government and business elite of Singapore.
Eli Young
loc.gov
Pics from this book.
Check the collection to see if they have one on Singapore
Blake Thomas
The public sector in Singapore is very unconventional though: for example state housing accounts for 90% of dwellings, that's like Eastern Bloc tier.
David Mitchell
Singapore is also considered a tax heaven. Anyone know how much of their GDP is just foreign company HQ capital?
en.wikipedia.org
So if Singapore is capitalist, and is playing with privatization, what is public sector doing? How large is government control the economy?
Thank you!
Carson Cruz
Singapore is the literal definition of state capitalist. State owned industries extracting surplus labor from workers and reinvesting said surplus labor in increased development.
Jeremiah Jackson
Awesome answer. Do you know any major Singapore state owned companies? Also is Singapore a tax heaven?
Lastly how does Singapore compares to Taiwan,Japan and South Korea? Any of these three maintain state capitalism? How do these states function?
Good answers, thank you!
Daniel Peterson
The government strenuously objects to being called a tax haven. However, personal income tax is capped at 22% for the bracket of S$320k and beyond, there's no capital gains tax, no taxes on offshore accounts, corporate tax is capped at 17%, no estate tax, strong banking secrecy. With creative accounting I'm sure those numbers can be massaged quite a bit. Plus, Singapore has a branch of Le Freeport, high security storage facilities that allow for practically undocumented and untaxed trade in high-value collectibles.
A subject of contentious speculation is how much surplus is actually reinvested in development, and how much is siphoned off for the benefit of top porkies. The place is renowned, after all, for the logical leap that having the world's highest government salaries would eliminate corruption in government.
Dominic Clark
Well that answers one question, care to answer the rest?
Good answer, thank you.