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From: berman@psuvax1.UUCP (Piotr Berman)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Politics and Ethics--Socialism,
Message-ID: <1997@psuvax1.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 10-Feb-86 17:34:52 EST
Article-I.D.: psuvax1.1997
Posted: Mon Feb 10 17:34:52 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 12-Feb-86 00:42:52 EST
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Organization: Pennsylvania State Univ.
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> ..........
> As far as effective democracy goes, the US seems to me an overbuilt
> economic and bureaucratic dinosaur in contrast.  A cult of national
> destiny and leadership plus economic abandonment masked as laissez
> faire theory isn't democratic, it's just indolent.  And the direction
> of a resurgent militarized US isn't democratic either.
>
> Western European nations may be a little slower, but they know that
> no democratic society would vote for economic growth by wage cuts,
> which is what the "democratic" US has "voted" for as its great plan
> of economic recovery ?????
>
> Tony Wuersch

Tony is exagerating.  For example, Italians voted (i.e. government
encouraged unions to vote that way) to relax the mechanism of "scala
mobile", which in US means COLA, to increase Italian competetiveness
and so to restore economic growth.  This is nothing else but growth
by wage cuts.

I admit that in the long run the idea is absurd: growth should increase
individual wealth, not decrease.  But in the short run it may mean
a necessary correction.  (This is at least what Italians seemed to
believe.)

Piotr Berman