Old habits die hard
Old habits die hard
Dear Editor,
Your editorial comment about the Miller government and its disrespect for private enterprise (by proposing to increase the personal tax rate to 50%) got me to thinking. At a recent conference in Boston, Daniel Yergin of Cambridge Economic Research Associates was giving away copies of a three-part series produced by CERA with WGBH. The title of the series was "The Commanding Heights." (I highly recommend this brilliant exposition of the tug of war between capitalism and socialism during the 20th century.)
The title of the series was taken from a speech made by Lenin shortly before his death. Lenin evidently saw that his nationalisation of everything was wreaking havoc on the country. He proposed relaxing Communism some to allow for the private sale of agricultural commodities by the farmers personally, and for the establishment of small, private businesses. His colleagues in the Party Congress ripped into him, and he responded. He said that the government would still own the steel mills, the coal mines, the chemical plants and the heavy industries. He called those the "commanding heights of the economy."
Sound familiar? In the case of Poland, the "commanding heights" are now known as the "family silver" and still remain under the government's thumb, despite a few token privatisations. Of course, the Miller government cannot be blamed for the miserable track record over the last 12 years where the government broke promise after promise after promise to privatise, rationalise and restructure those heavy industries. The governments since 1990 have been reluctant to give up control of those commanding heights. Even "shock therapy" left them generally undisturbed.
Old habits die hard. I don't expect them to change any time soon.
Zach Allen
(resident in Warsaw 1991 - 2002)
Narragansett, RI, USA
Managing Director
Pan EurAsian Enterprises, Ltd.
www.paneurasian.com
Dear Editor,
Your editorial comment about the Miller government and its disrespect for private enterprise (by proposing to increase the personal tax rate to 50%) got me to thinking. At a recent conference in Boston, Daniel Yergin of Cambridge Economic Research Associates was giving away copies of a three-part series produced by CERA with WGBH. The title of the series was "The Commanding Heights." (I highly recommend this brilliant exposition of the tug of war between capitalism and socialism during the 20th century.)
The title of the series was taken from a speech made by Lenin shortly before his death. Lenin evidently saw that his nationalisation of everything was wreaking havoc on the country. He proposed relaxing Communism some to allow for the private sale of agricultural commodities by the farmers personally, and for the establishment of small, private businesses. His colleagues in the Party Congress ripped into him, and he responded. He said that the government would still own the steel mills, the coal mines, the chemical plants and the heavy industries. He called those the "commanding heights of the economy."
Sound familiar? In the case of Poland, the "commanding heights" are now known as the "family silver" and still remain under the government's thumb, despite a few token privatisations. Of course, the Miller government cannot be blamed for the miserable track record over the last 12 years where the government broke promise after promise after promise to privatise, rationalise and restructure those heavy industries. The governments since 1990 have been reluctant to give up control of those commanding heights. Even "shock therapy" left them generally undisturbed.
Old habits die hard. I don't expect them to change any time soon.
Zach Allen
(resident in Warsaw 1991 - 2002)
Narragansett, RI, USA
Managing Director
Pan EurAsian Enterprises, Ltd.
www.paneurasian.com
