Today, I have a special treat for you: Ludwig von Mises' 1952 essay titled "The Plight of the Underdeveloped Nations." It is a brief essay, and it leaves you with the feeling that our country would today have been a paradise if this was widely read here in 1952 - when Chacha Nehru began "planning."
It was Clement Attlee's Labour government that handed India over to the socialist CONgress. Mises starts off by talking about Attlee's nationalization of coal mines in Britain - and how this meant the British could do nothing when the Iranians nationalized British oilfields in Iran!
Mises' main point is that the underdeveloped nations benefit from foreign capital, and they are grievously hurt when the international capital market breaks down because of socialism, nationalization, exchange control and other interventions aimed at expropriating foreign capital.
Mises goes on to say that the greatest harm done to the East was sending their bright youth to the West - because the professors of the West poisoned the minds of the East with an anti-capitalist bias.
The Lesson: Don't go to Harvard, Princeton, Yale or the LSE. Study at home - and visit Mises.org for all your study material.
This great essay by Mises on the plight of underdeveloped nations did not receive any attention in 1952. I hope it receives huge attention today. Read it here - and circulate far and wide.
I completely agree with this article! We've seen the growth in inequality since liberalization happened in 1993, and the only reason for that is improper planning from the government. Poverty eradication has not taken place and only crony capitalism has resulted. Had proper inflows of foreign capital occurred, the story could have been different.
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