On July 23 2012 04:53 Birdie wrote:
Hong Kong had an amazing economy when there was little to no government interference. Once China owned HK the economy slowed down; not much because China was careful to not interfere too much on such a good cash cow but somewhat. And plenty of capitalists want laissez-faire...
Hong Kong had an amazing economy when there was little to no government interference. Once China owned HK the economy slowed down; not much because China was careful to not interfere too much on such a good cash cow but somewhat. And plenty of capitalists want laissez-faire...
They say they do. Actually wanting it is a different thing. They just naturalize the things they want the government to do, and insist on the artificiality of everything else.
For example, capitalists want the government to enforce intellectual property laws, which is not laissez-faire. (edit: they also want them to give them subsidies, protect them from foreign competition, restrain labor power, etc etc) (edit again: on the other side of things, capitalists also want government to break monopolies, which is not laissez-faire either)
Can't comment on the history of Hong Kong as I haven't studied it. Given the nature of its history as an entrepot, however, considering HK as a self-contained entity which illustrates the validity of some particular economic paradigm is exceedingly disingenuous.