UNEMPLOYMENT
This entry shows, in essence, the amount of people that could work but are unable to find work. Take a look at the overall trends (i.e. the black lines)
As you can see, despite the Turkish government exercising all the key controls over their economy and despite debasing their currency and spending their unemployment level continues to rise. Why? How is this even possible? According to Keynes this can't happen as Turkey is applying all the "correct" economic methods to their economy. Why then? Simple, Keynes was and is dead wrong! Geee…. What a revelation….
SAVINGS
This entry shows, in essence, how much wealth are people accumulating because they have disposable income (i.e. income left to spend arbitrarily once all the debts are paid off).
Again, as you can see, the people in Singapore and not only saving more, but are consistently adding to savings (i.e. they have more disposable income). However, people in Turkey are consistently saving less (i.e. having less disposable income), which also mean that they are spending their existing savings on day-to-day living expenses. Basically, they are getting broke. And we have to ask again, why?
NET DEBT
This entry shows, in essence, how much real debt (i.e. debt minus assets) as a percentage of GDP is being carried by their respective governments.
As you can see, Turkey is doing an excellent job at reducing its debt… but…Singapore has none!!! That's right! Singaporeans owe ZERO money to anybody despite the fact that their gross debt is astronomical. Why is that? Because the Singaporean government is spending what is borrowing for investment purposes only, not for the benefit of politicians.
Note: as an aside, are we happy with the ultra-high Singaporean debt? Of course not! But that's not the point. The point of the article is to compare a country in the world where we have freeish markets, as best we can. And Singapore is as close as we can get to such an example.
CONCLUSION
At this point, we need to ask ourselves how is it possible that Singapore, being a tiny, relatively isolated island devoid of all natural resources managed to obtain such a stellar economic performance? We need to ask ourselves, how is it possible that Turkey, being a massive country with vast resources, a full-fledged member of the European Union, wedged in a highly desirable geopolitical region managed to deliver such a lousy performance? How?
Is it because Singaporeans are clever and Turks are dumb? Are they more disciplined? Do they have a better culture? Is it because Singaporeans have "good" governments and Turks do not? Is it because of some freak accident of nature?
Of course not!
The answer is quite simple. Singaporeans recognized long time ago that they were screwed. They had absolutely nothing, thus, they had no choice but to embrace what they call an "Open Market"; which is their semantics for Free Market. Their only chance of prospering where to embrace entrepreneurship at all levels; and this is precisely what they did. They recognized that entrepreneurship is the way out, the path to much higher prosperity for all. But they also recognized that entrepreneurship is basically incompatible with economic manipulation and so they stayed away from manipulating their markets. They recognized long time ago that borrowing and spending to "enhance" their standards of living was impossible because nobody in their right mind would lend money on an ongoing basis to an utterly broke government! They recognized long time ago that they either went Free Market or they went Free Fall. It's not that their government is "better" but they don't have any choice!
Turkey, on the other hand, had all the "benefits" of modern economics and modern politics. They had all the resources. They had all the right market access. They could afford to implement "modern" economic theories and "socialize" many of their services, all "for the greater good"… which lead to few goods for the greater many!!!
The discrepancies between the Free Markets and Keynes is not a mystery, it is not a problem to solve; it has been theoretically solved at least 60 years ago (by Austrian Economics and Mises) and practically solved more than 4000 years ago when free markets were supreme!
Do you think that this article is a theoretical one? That we spend long hours debating the merits of hypothetical issues just because we feel that we don't have sufficient repetitive strain injuries for hitting our keyboards so hard?
Think again.
This has to do strictly with real life and real consequences. This has to do with your life and the consequences to your life. Or do you think that somehow you are immune to all of this? That nothing that your government does affects you?
Wake up!
You are in this manure up to your eyebrows!
Look, again, this is not complicated and if there is one lesson you should take from this article, it is a simple one:
Free Markets work, Keynesianism does not. Period.
Feel free to break this rule at your own peril…and your family's peril… and your friends' peril… and your town's peril… and… oh… wait… you are did it and are continuing doing it… guess you have the government(s) (and debacles) you are wishing for...
... but if not... then just stop voting. It's easy. All it takes is to stay at home. Simple, right? Your choice.
Note: please see the Glossary if you are unfamiliar with certain words.
