Philobiblon

Interesting piece in today’s Guardian about the not-so-capitalist development of India and China.

India registered its most impressive gains from 1951 to 1980, after emerging from more than two centuries of systematic colonial exploitation, during which it was, in effect, deindustrialised. Until 1980 India achieved an average annual economic growth of 3.5% – as much as most countries achieved. In this period India’s much derided socialistic economy also helped create the country’s industrial capacity.

Much popular literature about China, such as Jung Chang’s recent biography of Mao, makes it seem as though China did little after the communist revolution in 1949 but lurch from one disaster to another. In fact, China’s national income under a planned economy grew fivefold between 1952 and 1978. Though wages were low, the welfare system – the famous “iron rice bowl” – guaranteed lifetime employment, pensions, healthcare and other benefits that created a high degree of personal security.

That made me think of some street children I saw in southern China some 15 years ago. They were hanging around a restaurant that used disposable plastic dishes (hate to think of the waste) and when some dinners had left some just about inedible green vegetable dashed forward, grabbed it and raced away, chased by waiters flapping arms as though they were pigeons. I came across them around the corner stuffing the grenn veggies in as though it were chocolate. They were hungry. Very hungry. There must be many more like them now.