North Korea Goes Free Market

Interesting to see North Korea finally throw in the towel and lift restrictions on private markets in an effort to curtail starvation. Something of a "Reaganesque" propaganda coupe for the RW freemarketeers in this country no doubt... You know the type, those dweebs who'll now be even more strident in equating any government 'interference' with the market with the busted North Korean Stalinist system. Obama's "socialist central planning" is doomed!

But, you say, could anyone be that dumb? Yes indeed. Here's one commenter at Drudge Retort, full of the smugness born of being a dumb sh*t, who says:

"Central planning doesn't work in this or any other country either... The question for this country is, now bad does this economy have to get before Americans realize that government intervention is the cause of their miseries?"

Wow. Let's compare apples with bulldozers as usual. Let's grasp at any straw to validate our dumb opinions... it is the wingnut way. But say it quietly lest the gasps of outrage drown you out: It is not government interference that is screwing America, it's the freemarket and our weird obsession with letting it dictate policy.

Take energy for example. There was a depressing Daily Show montage the other night showing clips of presidents from Nixon thru Obama all making promises to break free from the dinosaur juice and end their respective energy crises. And what happened in every case? Nada. Why? Because of good ol' American reliance on the freemarket and the doomed hope that Wall Street might one day quit the oil tit of its own accord and put money into 'risky' new alternatives instead. Never happened, never will. Not a f*cking chance so long as there's still a penny to be made trading dwindling commodities like oil. Yet, somehow, the freemarket that thrives on stasis and artificial shortage, is the way out of trouble for starving North Korea and the oil-addicted US?

History shows that the freemarket has always to be forced into acting in the interests of the country. The only way it is ever persuaded to take genuine risks and help push technology forward for the common good, is during times of crisis when big, bad government is obliged to interfere. Take WWII for example. When national survival trumped freemarket bullsh*t and FDR brought in some serious centralized planning and big government interference. WWII gave us radar, jet planes, rockets to put men on the f*cking moon already. Would any of that have happened if the market had been left alone to get on with it? Hell no. We'd probably still be fighting it out with Japan using sticks and clubs while a few thousand rich c*nts traded armaments futures on wall Street.

Pyongyang now turns to the freemarket to solve their crisis - just as we've been banking on it to solve our crisis for the past 40+ years. Sh*t out of luck all round I'd say.