Global Capitalism & a “Model” Socialist State
The leftist state of Kerala, India has been held up as proof that socialism works. Alas, as a recent NY Times story reveals, the only way Kerala has been able to survive is because so many of its citizens get jobs elsewhere and send money back home: “Remittances from global capitalism are carrying the whole Kerala economy,” said S. Irudaya Rajan, a demographer at the Center for Development Studies, a local research group. “There would have been starvation deaths in Kerala if there had been no migration. The Kerala model is good to read about but not practically applicable to any part of the world, including Kerala.”
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September 10th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Interesting article posted by Brandon. The article discusses money sent back to Kerala by expatriates and how these absentee family members are supporting Kerala’s better lifestyle and 74 year life expectancy.
In 2004, it was reported that $16.6 billion US was sent to Mexico from out of the country, mostly by workers in the US. It was Mexico’s second largest industry, behind petroleum and ahead of tourism. Try googling ’send money to mexico’ or ’send money to philippines’ and see how many businesses are set up to facilitate transfer.
wendy@grassrootinstitute.org