(September 3, 2017 at 8:38 am)chimp3 Wrote:(September 3, 2017 at 8:16 am)Brian37 Wrote: Just because the majority of their population is poor does not mean the Kim family is poor. This is what most don't get, there is not one nation, friend or foe alike that have powers that invest in the global market. Kim family has global investments and just because the west sanctions them does not mean all their allies do. It is also a myth that Hitler's Germany or Stalin's Russia were anti market. Every nation takes in money and exports, to greater or lesser degrees.
I don't think Kim Jong Un is paying for this out of his own pocket.
I posted two or three videos showing that North Korea is capitalist, just not the type we think of in the west. In the west we have common law and anti trust laws and anti monopoly laws that prevent consolidation of wealth to one party/family/business. North Korea has a private sector, just not an openly competitive sector.
The Kim family is basically running a Ponzy scheme and they keep their family/party wealth by "gift politics". What we call in America, "Pay to play through blind loyalty". The family doesn't give up personal wealth no, but they do have ways of exporting and importing and getting foreign money to do just enough to keep just enough of the population happy to avoid getting toppled. Force and fear and propaganda are used also in combo with the carrot sticks.
You can enjoy a good life by doing the bidding of the "Dear Leader". I wont say they have a huge upper class or middle class, those are very tiny, but just big enough to act as a heat shield to the Kim family and to pay their army.
Pynongpang is the hub of what we call our "middle class and upper class".
We call Un a dictator, but over there they are seen as Royalty and they see the Kim wealth as something to be worshiped because they too, think ultimately like many gullible people here that the wealth will "trickle down".
No, it is not a free market or a people based open market like the west, but it does include the private sector and global investments.
