Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site batman.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!ut-sally!oakhill!cyb-eng!batman!gene
From: gene@batman.UUCP (Gene Mutschler)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: South Africa (really the rest of Africa)
Message-ID: <156@batman.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 4-Aug-85 22:35:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: batman.156
Posted: Sun Aug  4 22:35:00 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 7-Aug-85 03:33:54 EDT
References: <1009@ihlpg.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Burroughs Austin Research Center, TX
Lines: 38

I have replied to your comments about South Africa elsewhere.  This
particular bit of foolishness deserves a separate response.  I thought
about mailing it, but your views are so widely shared, I thought a
wider dissemination appropriate, pending more eloquent arguments by
others.

>           Why should we bother discussing something so relevant as
> an ongoing revolution when we can discuss the fine points of 
> libertarianism, a philosophy based on laissez-faire capitalism
> that was already obsolete in 1890? How else can we prove our
> irrelevance in a world in change?
> 
> ---Andy Berman  ...ihnp4!ihlpg!berman
> 
It is rare to find one who is so proud to wear his ignorance on his sleeve.
Just because the roots of libertarianism go back farther than Karl Marx
is no reason to ignore it.

The principal reason so many African countries are in a pickle is because
their farmers have acted rationally when faced with markets distorted by
a bunch of tinpot dictators and tinhorn politicians.

Most African leaders never did an honest day's work in their lives; that
is, they have no conception of the process of the creation of wealth.
They were educated (if at all) at some European university, where
they got their economics from Keynes (at best) or Marx (more often).
They have in effect confiscated food crops from their farmers by
forcing them to sell to state marketing agencies at artificially low
prices.  This food is then used to provide the basis for a welfare
state for the urban masses.  It is not surprising that farmers will
not produce crops under these conditions.  At least it is not
surprising if one has studied the "irrelevant" economics of free
markets.
-- 
Gene Mutschler             {ihnp4 seismo ctvax}!ut-sally!batman!gene
Burroughs Corp.
Austin Research Center     cmp.barc@utexas-20.ARPA
(512) 258-2495