Here is a graph of North Korea's GDP. South Korea's GDP roughly follows this graph until the 1970's, at which point it continues to grow. Note what happens to NoKorea when the Soviet Union dies.
Posted on 01/27/2013 12:56:38 PM PST by Berlin_Freeper
HUNGRY parents in North Korea have been caught eating their CHILDREN to avoid starvation, according to reports.
One father is said to have been executed by firing squad for killing his two kids for food.
And it has sparked fears there could be further cases of cannibalism in the country.
The Sunday Times told how undercover reporters recorded several horror stories from inside the poverty-stricken nation.
They included one man who dug up his grandchild's corpse to eat and another who boiled his child and ate the flesh.
Thousands of North Koreans are feared to be starving to death while their chubby leader Kim Jong-Un regularly dines on banquets.
It is claimed that more than 10,000 people could have died from in the provinces south of the capital Pyongyang alone.
(Excerpt) Read more at thesun.co.uk ...
Bob -- No it won't. We have no lifeline from China as did NK with Russia. We trade with China and 'outsource' our manufacturing to China and other countries for economic reasons. They just make all our stuff for us with their cheap labor.
China has no incentive to stop selling to us. But if they did we would buy from someone else. If the whole world stopped selling to us (unlikely) then we would simply start manufacturing here again. We would not starve and start eating our children. That's ludicrous.
Here is a graph of North Korea's GDP. South Korea's GDP roughly follows this graph until the 1970's, at which point it continues to grow. Note what happens to NoKorea when the Soviet Union dies.
The leftwing utopia strikes again.
But North Korea was once a VERY PROSPEROUS nation
One thing we learned in my Comparative Econ course many decades ago was that Socialism DOES rapidly industrialize an economy, at least initially. However the top down command and control economy is highly inefficient; thus the benefits do not last long. The products that are produced are produced only to meet the quotas, thus there is no quality control.
As far as the “workers” starving; it happens in all socialist nations. This is because the incentives are all wrong.
However; the left feels that their ideas can never be wrong - so when they don’t work it is because we just didn’t do them enough. This is why even though socialism has failed miserably every place it has been tried they insist on trying it again. It just CAN’T be that it is a bad idea!
“You do not understand North Korean culture. Read “Nothing To Envy” it details the mass starvation in the 1990s where millions of people died.”
I read that too. That’s where it was made clear that the Norks were doing quite well (relatively speaking) until the oil flow (from Russia) stopped. Then the lights flickered, then they went off for good. And the factory workers were told it they were on their own to earn money. And the teachers watched their students, one by one, get skinnier, and then drop out of school, never to be seen again. It was horrific, and totally not necessary, except the food they got went to the troops...
Many of us (here) have these fantasies about growing our own food and doing just fine when the power stops...but we have NO CLUE what will be coming. It will be NOTHING like people expect.
In the sense of your rebuttal, yes. But in a more tragic sense we not only will, but we already are, and have been for some time.
The level of debt we are piling up will devour our children and grandchildren. And contrary to what many idiots spouting the conventional wisdom have to say about it, we do NOT owe that money to China. China stopped buying our debt almost two years ago, and they never held more than a small fraction of our debt to begin with. Most of the money we owe, we owe to other Americans.
If you have a strong stomach read about what has been going on in NK for a few generations. Men are barely 5 ft tall, due to generational starvation.
Google one of the prison camps and tell me how starved,mentally incompetent people could get out?
A few have and the stories will curl your hair. It IS HAPPENING. The world knows it and lets it continue. Shame on us.
It doesn't.
[I was taught the same thing in the 1970's.] If it were true, there would be no reason why the initial successes could not be compounded: Aggregate Demand creates more demand. True growth creates more growth. This is why socialists believe in "stimulus." It's false.
What command economies -- including Socialism -- actually do is very rapidly consume all assets. Comparatively free market economies, even feudalism and mercantilism, create wealth not all of which is consumed. When Socialist revolutions come along, they spend it all. When it's exhausted, since all of the "growth" was created by borrowed money, there is nothing left to sustain it.
“Bob — No it won’t. We have no lifeline from China as did NK with Russia. We trade with China and ‘outsource’ our manufacturing to China and other countries for economic reasons. They just make all our stuff for us with their cheap labor.”
...and when they start demanding HARD CURRENCY for their goods and tell us to take a hike if we can’t provide that, EXACTLY WHICH factories here will we use to produce that stuff? Hint, they don’t exist in the US, anymore. As to whether that can happen...just study Iceland when their banks collapsed - ships would not even dock there unless paid in Euros because their currency, overnight, was WORTHLESS. Don’t tell me that it can’t happen here, given our debt and obligations. I’m just sorry you will have to learn that the hard way.
“China has no incentive to stop selling to us.”
Sorry, they have a HUGE INCENTIVE to stop selling to us - we’re giving them FAKE money and they are giving us REAL products in return, and they know it. They’ve complained about it (loud) and, when they get to where they need to be, they’ll stop complaining and take action.
“But if they did we would buy from someone else.”
Maybe some stuff, but not much. You need to find out just how embedded they are now in our economy. And it’s not just them that stops selling to us when our currency implodes, it’s everyone.
“If the whole world stopped selling to us (unlikely) then we would simply start manufacturing here again. We would not starve and start eating our children. That’s ludicrous.”
It takes YEARS, maybe DECADES to get an industrial base restarted. So, PLEASE tell me where we are hiding all the food we need while we ramp up. I know we keep a few months of oil (assuming Obama hasn’t emptied it), and we probably have a few months of food. But have you EVER tried to build and start up a factory? I have.
People start to starve in weeks.
Very, very tragic. And no one in the entire world seems capable of doing anything to help these people.
I’m sure this is my fault, too.
I did it right after illegal immigration and slavery.
“Here is a graph of North Korea’s GDP. South Korea’s GDP roughly follows this graph until the 1970’s, at which point it continues to grow. Note what happens to NoKorea when the Soviet Union dies. “
Pretty much makes my point. They had a decent amount of money back then. They weren’t wealthy, but they were far from starving. But then the freebies ended, and they starved...
"What do you mean people are starving? I eat plenty!"
Your post must be sarcasm, if not then you must open your eyes, there is evil in the world. Until you face it, it will continue.
“I understand your point. I am just inclined to think that, as a people, the Norks are completely cowed.”
Actually, if you study history carefully, oppressed people hardly ever rise up on their own against oppressors. There is ALMOST ALWAYS and instigating factor - some outside influence that gets them riled up and ready to fight.
In the Russia, before the Soviet Union, the Bolsheviks tried their best to get the peasants to revolt, but usually found themselves at the short end of an execution each time they tried entering one of the oppressed villages. They finally gave up on that approach and instead went after the much better off factory workers and elites in the cities.
“If these people were this bad off sooner or later a few of them would band together and take what they need from those who have it” - Don’t you get it, no one has it to get it from!
And maybe they ate the executed later. Another example of what atheism fosters as much as false religion of more, that of political religion.
The video to see is the National Geographic documentary, Inside North Korea;/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxLBywKrTf4
Incredibly credible,
LOL. It is interesting what you learn about people at this site. You are friggin’ nuts Bob. :-)
“LOL. It is interesting what you learn about people at this site. You are friggin’ nuts Bob. :-)”
Same here. As Rush says, personal attacks signal that the debate is over and that side has lost.
So enjoy the rest of the weekend too, but sorry the future will have to take you TOTALLY UNPREPARED.
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