My wonderful readers already know that the battle of commerce was fought in the 20th century between many central planning schemas and the few non-planning societies. All of the central planning systems failed miserably. All of the failures resulted in mass murder, starvation or sheer misery as we have in Cuba today.
But the triumph of commerce is often disputed.
The success of China is not a Democratic success. The great successes of Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea are attributed to cultural superiority of those specific Asians. The turnaround of India is offset by the sad failure of the current post-Soviet Union.
There is one pure case. There is one democracy that operated wholeheartedly on the Soviet, union-dominated economy and carefully switched to an open market commerce.
That pure example is Israel from its founding days as a perfect model of a Soviet union dominated economy (with all political leaders looking to their personal experience in the USSR) with a union dominated labor party (Mapam) running the government until the mid-1960s.
From the mid-1960s until the late 1970s the labor party began selling large government industries to private parties. From the late 1970s onward, a market oriented party (Likud) began and continued selling industries but broke up the industries into more functional less union style entities.
The data from Israel is not perfect because the slow growth in the early 80s (1% over 5 years) and the modest growth of personal income in the late 80s (60% over 5 years) has to be contrasted with the extraordinary growth in the first half of the 90s (77% over 5 years) and the astounding growth in the last half of the 90s (90% over 5 years) The 90s were a period of massive immigration from the Soviet Union.
Ordinarily immigration is a drain on society, but the Russian Jews were highly educated and ready to assimilate into the society rapidly. Rapid growth continued to this day with high growth rates throughout the first decade of the 2000's (88% in the first 5 years and 78% in the second 5 years).
Israel is a pure case of the success, triumph, of commerce for all who have an open mind and the eyes to see reality.
But the triumph of commerce is often disputed.
The success of China is not a Democratic success. The great successes of Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea are attributed to cultural superiority of those specific Asians. The turnaround of India is offset by the sad failure of the current post-Soviet Union.
That pure example is Israel from its founding days as a perfect model of a Soviet union dominated economy (with all political leaders looking to their personal experience in the USSR) with a union dominated labor party (Mapam) running the government until the mid-1960s.
From the mid-1960s until the late 1970s the labor party began selling large government industries to private parties. From the late 1970s onward, a market oriented party (Likud) began and continued selling industries but broke up the industries into more functional less union style entities.
The data from Israel is not perfect because the slow growth in the early 80s (1% over 5 years) and the modest growth of personal income in the late 80s (60% over 5 years) has to be contrasted with the extraordinary growth in the first half of the 90s (77% over 5 years) and the astounding growth in the last half of the 90s (90% over 5 years) The 90s were a period of massive immigration from the Soviet Union.
Ordinarily immigration is a drain on society, but the Russian Jews were highly educated and ready to assimilate into the society rapidly. Rapid growth continued to this day with high growth rates throughout the first decade of the 2000's (88% in the first 5 years and 78% in the second 5 years).
Israel is a pure case of the success, triumph, of commerce for all who have an open mind and the eyes to see reality.