Check out this awesome excerpt from this Newsweek interview with Lula da Silva:
Lula: But the state could have done the same things.
NW: Except that it didn't.
Lula: It didn't because the Brazilian elite used public companies for their own ends. When you do that , any company will go broke, anywhere in the world. I think the privatizations were a mistake.
And then it gets even better:
NW: The Mercosul trading bloc, which Brazil leads, only allows full democracies that respect human rights as members. Does Venezuela qualify?
Lula: Give me one example of how Venezuela is undemocratic.
NW: Thirty-four radio stations closed by the government in one weekend. Repression of independent trade unions and government persecution of political rivals. Gangs linked to the government of Hugo Chávez vandalizing the only independent television broadcaster.
Lula: That's not the government's version.
NW: Is there any doubt?
Lula: Let's be frank on one thing. First, each country establishes the democratic regime that suits its people. It's a sovereign decision of every nation.
1 comment:
It didn't because the Brazilian elite used public companies for their own ends. When you do that , any company will go broke, anywhere in the world.
No, when you do that, the government will raise taxes to subsidize the public company used for their own ends. Private companies will go broke; that's the advantage. (Well, except if bailed out, as the US seems to enjoy doing now. Sigh.)
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