> Cambridge University economist, Joan Robinson, back in
> in the mid-1960s wrote a famous article, "Korean Miracle,"
> for Monthly Review which greatly praised North Korea's
> economic policies, which indeed at that time were
> producing greater economic progress there than
> was being experienced back then by South Korea.
>
> Jim F.
Sorry, Jim, I respect you as a poster, but what the hell does this have to do with anything that has been said? Justin observed that command economies like the Soviet Union sometimes did a bang-up job of industrialization (perhaps better than hypothetical capitalist economies would've) but never achieved anything close to Western levels of affluence. Doug suggested that this was merely a matter of differing starting points. I said not so fast--EG/WG (and NK/SK) started out _very, very close_ to one another. And now others have claimed that WG and SK reached the finish line only because the US gave them rocket boosters while EG and NK were forced out of the race because the US made them run with rocks on their backs.
-- Luke