The Marshall Plan
After the Versilles treaty prooved to be Hitlers greatest ally, the Marshall
Plan was intended to ensure that the USSR would not have any discontent to
exploit. Since the September 11th attacks, many have pointed out that today
terrorists are also using suffering to gain sympathisers, just as the Stalinists
and Nazis did before them. Todays leaders seem to have forgotten the lessons of
the past, unless a few crumbs of food dropped in minefields counts as something.
But Europeans already had skills, while the third world does not
The Marshall plan did not only help skilled Europeans. Among the ten examples
of aid on the Marshal
Foundation web site are projects in North Borneo and Tunisia. Indonesia
(Dutch East Indies) recieved $101.4 million.
The Marshall plan also provided training, over 3,000 Europeans made six-month
visits to US industries. There was a similar project for agriculture. So in short, the Marshall plan could still work today.
Neoism
When neosim arrived, (especially in Britain under Thatcher) things went
downhill. From 1983 to 1988, low-pay part-time jobs grew 27.7 percent while
full-time jobs increased only 2.4 percent.
Germany
Like Japan, Germany had to develop from ruins.
The Economist describes the German Economy as "incapable of
flight...well-paid workers, who sit on oversight boards...cradle-to-grave
welfare" and of course, high taxes.
Like Japan it quickly went from rags to riches.
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Britain
Development:
Britain only started talking about free trade after they gained power through
protectionism, especially of their naval industries that helped them literally
sink their competetors.
They did not abolish the protectionist "Corn Laws" until as late as 1846
The "Navigation Acts" created many British monopolies.
Land enclosure ruthlessly forced farmers to become industrial workers.
Neoism:
Crime took 30 years to double in Britain (from 1 million incidents in 1950 to
2.2 million in 1979). However, between 1979 and 1992, 13 years of the "free
market" and "individual responsibility" the crime rate more than doubled, to
over 5 million in 1992.
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Switzerland
At the Davos meeting in 2000 the mainstream media was urged to spread the
message of free trade. While protestors used a laser system to write slogans on
a mountain, police tried to get liquid fertilizer to spray them with (The
shocked farmers refused).
Italy
Naples saw 20,000 protestors on March 18th, 2001. By July, more than ten
times that number were protesting in Genoa despite the city being shut down by a
"ring of steel".
Tunisia
Surprisingly, there is one African nation that is not crushed by poverty.
Just like in Asia, the neos claim it as their own dispite the facts.
The neo World Economic Forum calls Tunisia the most competetive nation in
Africa. Like the Asian NICs it has ignored neos.
While the World Bank suggested massive projects funded by massive borrowing
(producing massive profits for the bankers), Tunisia ignored them. Without debt
the IMF never got a chance to force neo policy.
As a result, Tunisia was free to spend massively on education. It also has
very little income inequality (what neos call "incentive").
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