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From: janw@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Point of Information: Economy of Sin
Message-ID: <7800591@inmet.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 22-Oct-85 20:02:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: inmet.7800591
Posted: Tue Oct 22 20:02:00 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 25-Oct-85 07:41:44 EDT
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Nf-From: inmet!janw    Oct 22 20:02:00 1985


> [lkk@teddy]
> [Larry Kolodney's note on the economy of Singapore, in particular
> a tax called Central Provident Fund, based on Wall Street Journal,
> Oct 21, page 25]]

What Larry tells about the WSJ article is a fair summary. Let me
balance it a bit, though, with two quotes from there:

] Even so, everyone, including the government, agrees that it's time
] for the private sector to supplant the government as the engine
] of growth.

] A report by 12 prominent Singapore economists, submitted  to  the
] government earlier this year, urges a radical rethinking of the CPF.

What I would call into question (not deny outright) is Larry's
contention that Singapore is often quoted as a laissez-faire
paradise. Reagan's flattery, in a diplomatic situation, is
not really a fair example. My impression was that it is
a thoroughly paternalistic place (though quite 
capitalist, too) and recognized as such ... Any economists
or East Asia watchers to set us right ?

Another point of this would be that a country with a high tax can
achieve  a sustained high growth rate. This is quite true, though
the tax is a very special one: it is non-progressive and is  used
as  a  compulsory investment fund; Singaporeans, according to the
same article, have a savings rate of 40% (forty per cent) !

It looks as though the Singapore experiment does not
provide a ready-made argument for *any* side of American
political discourse, but that it is still quite interesting,
and should be studied.

		Jan Wasilewsky