Capitalism vs. socialism in one chart: South Korea vs. Venezuela edition - AEI | Economics Blog » AEIdeas:"If you are trying to make a point about statism vs. democratic capitalism, comparing the fortunes of North and South Korea is an easy and effective way to make it.
A great natural experiment.
(Just compare night-time satellite photos of the Korean peninsula.)
One a modern, advanced economy.
The other a hellhole.
Same people, same geography, different political economy.
But the comparison is such an extreme — totalitarian North Korea is one of the most nightmarish nations ever to exist — that some might find it easy to dismiss.
A weird one-off.
So how about this comparison instead?
South Korea vs. Venezuela.
Certainly the latter isn’t Switzerland. Freedom House calls Venezuela a “partly free” nation that oppress political opposition.
But FH labels North Korea as “unfree” and uses the phrase “crimes against humanity” in the opening paragraph of its report.
The Index of Economic Freedom ranks Venezuela #176 out of the 178 nations it tracks, ahead of Cuba and North Korea.
But Venezuela is a much richer nation, with a per capita GDP (on a purchasing power basis) of $18,000 vs. $2,000 for North Korea.
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