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by dismalaf 9 days ago
> They don't. If they did, we would have made massive investments in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Marxist-Leninist governments there.

Ummm, what? Have you been to Eastern Europe lately (minus Ukraine, Belarus and Russia)? They're basically the west, except cleaner and less crime-ridden.

1 comments

That's the wrong takeaway from the post, and I think you know it.

Imagine what those countries would be like if they'd received the investment that the Chinese did 35 years ago.

Those countries are all significantly richer per capita than China. Especially somewhere like Czechia, which has already passed several Western European countries in wealth.

How much richer do you think Czechia and Poland would be if they received more FDI in the 90's versus the 00's?

They received way higher investment per person than China did as well.

Also, China has some natural advantages, like being able to employ a ton of ultra cheap labour to engage in nation building projects. While the appearance of China is that of a rich country, they remain significantly poorer per capita than Europe.

> How much richer do you think Czechia and Poland would be if they received more FDI in the 90's versus the 00's?

If capital wasn't authoritarian, we would have found out.