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The reason socialism wasn't successful in parts of Africa are as vast as the continent itself.
For starters the countries in the video you shared were just coming out of colonization, many of those countries at that time had significant infrastructure issues in addition to there being too many people that lacked education and resources to be in business for themselves especially on an international level.
From my perspective not one philosophy whether it be capitalist or socialist is going to be the perfect solution for any African nation, it will be a hybrid. But it starts with the vision and direction the people see for the country and the valuation of the currency.
Most countries in Africa one can not own the land. So if the resources are being mined then the prosperity that comes from those resources should be shared with the people. But socialism never works when the few in government keep the money for themselves. So it goes back to the vision of the country and how much individuals love their country to do the right thing by its people. Then when you have services that can be better facilitated by the private sector then that is when capitalism benefits many as well. What is going on in Ethiopia right now is a hybrid (the government is doing an AMAZING job right now)!
Banking, from my perspective in Africa should be controlled by the government.
Libya was a successful socialist state that harbored zero debt.
When I lived in New Jersey in the early 1990s, I knew a couple of Cuban guys close to my age that left the island in the Marielito boat lift (1980s). Both served in the Cuban Army in Angola in 1975-1976, when Cuba had 25,000 troops there. They had some interesting stories to tell which were never reported in most western media. It was a complicated and chaotic time in Angola and Mozambique in the mid 1970s.
The two sub-Saharan countries that were open to capitalism were Botswana and the Ivory Coast. Both countries by African standards have had the better economies on the continent.
Ivory Coast is still growing and wouldn't consider it a capitalist success. Botswana and Ivory Coast differ from one African nation to the next. When you have stable governments anything is possible and to some extent this has been the Achilles heel for many African nations, lack of vision, not to mention education. Both countries have a mixed economical system with the government as its center piece. I believe most African nations practice capitalism that is why they are allowing foreign investment. A combination of economical systems is needed in order to grow African nations. Many things that work in the West will NEVER work in Africa.
Here's why I've highlighted the Ivory Coast. The new president of the Ivory Coast and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana had made a bet on which one of them would have the better economy after a 10 year period.
They bet on which country would lead West Africa two decades on. Cote d’Ivoire vigorously pursued economic integration with France and allowed capitalism to thrive.
Ghana on the other hand broke most ties with the metropole, and gave the state a much stronger hand in the economy.
We could write an entire piece on who is ‘winning’ in 2011, but the important thing to note for this piece is that Felix Boigny’s approach allowed cocoa production to soar as French investment and agricultural know-how poured into Cote d’Ivoire.
Cote d’Ivoire exports approximately 40 percent of the world’s cocoa crop, with the West African region, including Ghana (21 percent), Nigeria (5 percent), and Cameron...
Gee, spare Africa such pointless ideological discussions, bad enough that they have poisoned the US.
Africans have other worries on their minds. There are various ideologies and they all can work and fail if done the right or wrong way, respectively.
There are various ideologies and they all can work and fail if done the right or wrong way, respectively.
Here's the problem with Marxist economies even when you try to do them right. How do Communist recognize when to do things differently with an industry?
Under capitalism business owners know when to do something different with their businesses based on feedback that they get from the market or consumer spending patterns.
Since a Communist economy doesn't rely on market feedback then how do Communist know when to change anything with businesses or industries? What signals are they relying on for when to make changes? Not knowing when or how to change things with industries can cause them to become stagnant,inefficient etc.
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