--- uvj at vsnl.com wrote: I agree these are not spectacular figures. East and South Asia's economic performance is better than India. I am simply questioning the popular Leftwing idea that capitalist development in the "Third World" is very difficult, if not altogether impossible.
Ulhas ---
I have a pop psych theory that part of the Western left's general Putinophobia is sore grapes because Russia has had robust growth with a capitalist economy over the past few years. This violates the predictions that Russia was going to "return to the Third World" as a "periphery." (Note that that certainly seemed plausible in Yeltsin days.) The only alternative was supposed to be a "return to socialism" or a "return to real socialism, not state capitalism," depending on one's interpretation of what the USSR was.
It's almost as if some people would have prefered universal poverty and collapse for the Russian population so they could see their theories validated. ;) You would think the 50% drop in poverty under Putin would have been something to applaud or at least take note of.
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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