"If a Martian were asked to pick the most efficient and humane economic systems on earth, it would certainly not choose the countries which rely most on markets. The United States is a stagnant economy in which real wages have been constant for more than a decade and the real income of the bottom 40 percent of the population declined. It is an inhumane society in which 11.5 percent of the population, some 32 million people, including 20 percent of all children, live in absolute poverty. It is the oldest democracy on earth but also one with the lowest voting rates among democracies and the highest per capita prison population in the world. The fastest developing countries in the world today are among those where the state pursues active industrial and trade policies; the few countries in the world in which almost no one is poor today are those in which the state has been engaged in massive social welfare and labor market policies."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
In: Journal of Democracy. Vol. 3, Nr. 3 (1992), p. 46
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Adam_Przeworski
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Adam Przeworski
16 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Adam Przeworski →
Related Quotes
"Thus finally we must abandon even the title. It is not the proletariat that is being formed into a class: it is a var…"
"Marx may have erred in analyzing the nature of this conflict. Interests of workers and capitalists may not be irrecon…"
"Social democrats will not lead European societies into socialism. Even if workers would prefer to live under socialis…"
"Capitalism is a system in which many scarce resources are owned privately, and decisions about allocating them are a …"
"Democracy is a system in which parties lose elections. [Footnote:] Note that the presence of a party that wins electi…"
"Democracy can be an equilibrium: a system of "self-government" in which the distinction between the rulers and the ru…"
"The simple answer to the question with which we began is that we do not know whether democracy fosters or hinders eco…"
"What makes democracies sustainable, given the context of exogenous conditions, are their institutions and performance…"
"Since in this view dictatorships generate development while development leads to democracy, the best way to democracy…"
"The conclusions are self-evident, so I just state them. Electoral winners and losers obey the results of democratic c…"