Replies

I think your characterization is completely off-base and wrong.

Please give specifics of who and what is being done that makes this “African style crony capitalism” (which IMHO is a misnomer anyway since those crony-states are all socialist, led by socialists like Mugabe).

It would be better to talk about specifics of what is good or bad than go around with renting of garments and over-heated rhetoric.

I think your characterization is completely off-base and wrong. Please give specifics of who and what is being done that makes this “African style crony capitalism” (which IMHO is a misnomer anyway since those crony-states are all socialist, led by socialists like Mugabe).

Well, I think your knowledge of the world in general and economic theory in particular is way off base. First, you clearly have no clue what socialism is, and second you have no clue how 3rd world countries run if you think that what goes on is socialism. Socialism is a system like Norway, or UK. Mugabe may call himself a socialist, but he is head crook in an armed band of crooks.

Crony capitalism is a system where you establish a dictatorship using your army of supporters to stay in power. You use the authority you have to steal what you can for yourself, your supporters and the army that you rely upon to keep you going. For instance you take enormous bribes to lease or sell natural resources at submarket rates to international companies to exploit them. You accept bribes to take out loans to enrich yourself and your friends ostensibly to build infrastructure projects, using the faith and credit of the people of your country as collateral. Your take ends up being in the billions all on deposit in offshore accounts.

There is nothing socialistic about that at all.

You see your problem is that you want to see the world as a great struggle between good and evil which you equate to capitalism and communism. There are lots of other kinds of corrupt systems besides communism.

Your other problem is that I am sure that you, like many of your uneducated fellow travelers, assume that someone who uses the term crony capitalism is slamming capitalism. Crony capitalism is not free market capitalism. It actually has little to do with capitalism, and has a lot more resemblance to how the mafia would run something.

Next time you decide to be rude, start from knowledge rather than ignorance.