[ViktorRay]

It’s hard to believe today but South Korea in the 1960’s was the poorest nation on Earth. Far poorer than even China.

In the post World War II era, Singapore was also deeply impoverished and wrecked by the legacy of war and colonialism. Hong Kong as well. Taiwan was poor too. Japan was decimated by the war.

All these countries ended up becoming wealthy and prosperous due to liberalization and capitalism. South Korea, Taiwan, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan. These places are all wealthy today.

Of course liberalization and capitalism was not the only factor. I don’t know much about the Latin American economies but I will take your word for them in terms of being poor. And India has many issues too.

That’s what I’ve been thinking about recently. It’s interesting to see what people say.

Also thank you for the book recommendation.

[kamaal]

>>It’s hard to believe today but South Korea in the 1960’s was the poorest nation on Earth.

In % GDP terms S.Korea is a top spender on research, development and education.

To give you a contrast in the recent Delhi elections, the party that built quality schooling for the poor was voted out. These are deep undercurrents of the Indian society. Watching a poor persons child get schooling and eventually a shot at getting better than your kid, is something most of the Indian middle class can't bear to watch it happen.

The motivations of Indian electorate are always- Can this political party hurt the people I hate?

You can't help people whose life purpose is to sabotage good things out of envy that other people will have it good.

[throwaway7783]

This is a very sweeping generalization.

The party that got voted out was mired in corruption scams and their premise to power was fighting against corruption.

Politics in India can be a lot more nuanced than you claim it to be. What you are saying is one part of the equation.

[kamaal]

>>The party that got voted out was mired in corruption scams

Thats basically every single political party. And thats actually baked into core assumptions before even going to vote. Regardless of who you put in power will steal.

The edge comes from using you as a attack dog to aim against people they hate. Not honesty.

[okucu]

You'll love the book then. Chibber compares India's path to South Korea and Taiwan, and why liberalization wasn't "the" key ingredient, but certainly one of the important ones