[lbo-talk] forced saving

[Jim Devine]

On 7/20/05, Nathan Newman <nathanne at nathannewman.org> wrote:
> One of the more interesting aspects of forced savings plans in both
> Singapore and Chile is that it allowed the government to direct a quite
> substantial amount of capital into domestic development.  In Singapore
> especially, it de facto socialized a large chunk of societal wealth under
> the control of the government, albeit through "investment funds" whose
> members were politically appointed.
> 
> This socialist aspect of both these supposed "free market" stars is one of
> the embarassing secrets rarely talked about by the rightwing.

Given the lack of democratic control over the investment funds, it's
hard to think of these cases as "socialist" (in the normative sense of
the word).  The word "statist" is more appropriate. There are lots of
cases of statism that most socialists wouldn't consider to be
"socialist."

-- 
Jim Devine
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts" -- Richard Feynman