Quick quiz, just two questions:
- What’s the opposite of “capitalism?”
- What’s the opposite of “socialism?”
(Hint: They are not opposites of one another.)
That realization came as a surprise to me the other day. I suppose I always knew they weren’t opposites. I’d just forgotten.
I was listening to All Things Considered on the way home Tuesday, and I caught their feature on rural China, which has been running all week. This particular installment was on Huaxi village in Jiangsu province, an interesting story of a centrally planned model for economic prosperity.
There were two comments that put me over the edge. One is from Wu Hao, a local who had studied abroad and returned to the village in order to run one of the textile factories. In heavily accented English he said, “I feel so happy because I make a good salary. Everything is okay.” (I’m pretty sure that’s what he said; it was a heavy accent.)
The other is from his uncle, Wu Xie En, the current party secretary and BMOC. Via translator: “Huaxi is a small place. If all we did was farm, at best we’d just be able to feed and clothe ourselves. We wouldn’t be able to get rich.“
Now back to the quiz. Here are the answers. Read the rest of this entry »
