>To make a country richer in absolute terms, the country has to raise
>its productivity
>
What are "absolute terms"?
>(unless the country has a lock on some very
>profitable international market niche like oil), but capitalism tends
>to be better at raising productivity than socialism.
>
But, it's more complicated than that. Due to the recycling of
petrodollars throughout the eighties by way of IMF loans, a lot of third
world countries became very productive indeed, but all the wealth that
productivity created went somewhere else...
Haiti is a capitalist country, as is the Dominican Republic. Now where would you rather live? Haiti? Dominican Republic? or Cuba?
Joanna