Nkrumahism, The Can Of Worms I Opened – Mixed Economy II

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• Osei Kofi 11 years ago

  I think you are making a joke of your self or you must be late in your economic analysis of the world.The world had moved on from your type of thinking and analysis and rethinking the nation state in the global economy.
  
  Bo ...
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  I think you are making a joke of your self or you must be late in your economic analysis of the world.The world had moved on from your type of thinking and analysis and rethinking the nation state in the global economy.
  
  Both capitalist and socialist economies are now relying on each other to give their people maximum benefits through PPP with mutual benefit to the the private and public sector and especially to society in general.The ppp offers the best of both worlds between capitalist economy and socialist economy.What is important though is that it must be undertaken to ensure that public-private partnerships provide public value.
  
  Nkrumah recognize this long ago when he said socialism is a short cut to development but capital is needed to hasten its growth hence the socialist path.To day the world is seeing the benefit of such vision.The failure of hard core capitalism in globalization is making that concession even more urgent for the benefit of all.

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• francis kwarteng 11 years ago

  Dear Baidoo,
  
  How are you?
  
  I still think you have no technical grasp of the topics you are discussing.
  
  Like I said before, I will not bother spending time to respond to your faulty analysis.
  
  You seem to throw con ...
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  Dear Baidoo,
  
  How are you?
  
  I still think you have no technical grasp of the topics you are discussing.
  
  Like I said before, I will not bother spending time to respond to your faulty analysis.
  
  You seem to throw concepts and statistics about without grounding them in a technical understanding of political economy.
  
  I am already assembling a list of technical texts dealing with the complex question of political economy.
  
  You will have to take your time to read them closely in order to acquire a technical grasp of the subject matter you are dressing. For now, you are way of the mark.
  
  To begin with, make time to read Winston Churchill's "The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of Sudan" and "The Story of the Malakand Field Force: An Episode of Frontier War" and Richard Toye's "Churchill: The World That Made Him and the World He made,"
  
  Read also Johann Hari's article "Not The Finest Hour: The Dark Side of Winston Churchill" (The Independent, Oct. 28, 2010).
  
  When you are done reading the three books and essay about Churchill( if you haven't already), then you should understand the magnitide of problem I have if I am to address your faulty arguments by, among other things, questioning your sources and admireres begining with a figure like Churchill.
  
  For instance, I wish you had address why Winston Churchill was not happy with the relative lack of effectiveness of British ammunitions (guns, etc) slaughtering and conqueing Sudanese and establshing the preesence of the British Empire in Sudan!
  
  Like I said before, I shall provide you with technical texts dealing with the complexity of political economy. You two essays soo far falls behind the mark of what I will consider to be issues that merit serious rejoinders from me.
  
  I will use the the little time I have to write other articles than to respond to your articles in any serious and detailed manner!
  
  Your six-months should have rather been spent reading the extensive sources I offered in my rebuttal. The extensive data therein and technical treatment of the subject matter you articles make light of undermine the central assumptions of your faulty arguments.
  
  Stay tuned for the technical texts. Please go back again and reevaluate the data given in all the source I initially presented in my rebutal.
  
  Have a great week.
  
  Thanks.

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• Botha 11 years ago

  If this long comment is not wasting time to respond to him, I wonder how long your comment would have been if you have wasted time to respond to him.
  
  You don't seem to be intelligent.
  
  6

  If this long comment is not wasting time to respond to him, I wonder how long your comment would have been if you have wasted time to respond to him.
  
  You don't seem to be intelligent.
  
  6

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• francis kwarteng 11 years ago

  Dear Bother,
  
  You are as clueless as Baidoo.
  
  He is actually wrong and clueless on "almost" everything he has said in this piece.
  
  Anyway I am not bothered by your use of the word "intelligent."
  
  It is a relative co ...
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  Dear Bother,
  
  You are as clueless as Baidoo.
  
  He is actually wrong and clueless on "almost" everything he has said in this piece.
  
  Anyway I am not bothered by your use of the word "intelligent."
  
  It is a relative concept and I wish you could have Baidoo to what his idol Churchill, to mention but one, has to say about the British Empire and Sudan among others.
  
  Let Baiddo see that "intelligent" in your response. The technical texts I will provide for him will tear his fragile assumptions, gross misrepresentations and lies, and overly weak arguments in pieces.
  
  Baidoo's arguments are as overly weak as he is clueless about the tas he has taken upon himself.
  
  If you had any clue what I am driving, you will take the opportunity to read the said technical texts, essays, etc., and compare them with what Baiddo has been saying in all his three articles.
  
  Both Baidoo and his articles are not serious.
  
  Please keep your "intelligent" and allow others to keep Baidoo on his toes if you have no clue what he is talking about! Look forward to the tecnical texts and essays!
  
  Have a great weekend.

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• Mahmoud 11 years ago

  There was nothing called mixed economy in Nkrumah's ideology. The mixed economy Kwarten and others have been trying to attribute to Nkrumah was a transitional period that was to be faced out soon if the factors enumerated bel ...
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  There was nothing called mixed economy in Nkrumah's ideology. The mixed economy Kwarten and others have been trying to attribute to Nkrumah was a transitional period that was to be faced out soon if the factors enumerated below were not present. In fact, Nkrumah didn't like free enterprise and mixed economy. The truth is that, Nkrumah was a communist and communism was his religion.
  
  Pro-Communist Policies
  
  Nkrumah began in 1960 to display openly his pro Communist, Anti-Western beliefs. Under his influence and with his encouragement, Ghana negotiated a number of economic agreements with Communist nations, waged increasingly strident campaigns against "capitalism, imperialism, and neocolonialism," and generally championed positions and policies in world affairs which support and further Communist aims. Moderates within the government were eliminated or lost their influence, while radicals and leftists assumed positions of importance and leadership and became increasingly influential in guiding Ghana further to the left.
  
  Despite all of this, however, Ghana today is not as far into the Communist camp as would seem probable. That Nkrumah and his like-minded followers have not succeeded in more closely identifying Ghana with the Communist world is due to a number of factors -- the Western culture and tradition ingrained over the years of British rule; the fact that Ghana's economy is still closely tied to Western markets; the fact that the governing party is far from being a monolithic organization and has never fully exercised the powers it theoretically possesses; the opposition of the armed forces to closer military ties with the Communists; and the fact that the Communist nations have been increasing reluctant to shore up the deteriorating economy, thus forcing Nkrumah not to alienate completely possible Sources of Western assistance.

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• Kojo T 11 years ago

  Phillip, tell me why the African countries that took the initial path of State capitaism are ahead of those with private capitalism.Most of the wars in African countries are from those that practice this laissez faire .AU cha ...
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  Phillip, tell me why the African countries that took the initial path of State capitaism are ahead of those with private capitalism.Most of the wars in African countries are from those that practice this laissez faire .AU chair just out doored tilling machine prototypes for African countries.They will be IPMPORTED from Poland.You should be advocating co operation and food security as the capitalism you advocate has FAILED.UK was built on State capitalism after the war because the individuals did not have caital.That s what Nkrumah was doing.Are you a fan of Africa importing $36bn worth of food a year and our youth dying in the desert and the Mediterranean.?

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• Cano 11 years ago

  What African country took state capitalism (Nothing like state capitalism) are you ashamed to call socialism what it is, dummy?
  
  Fool, now Nkrumahism is called state capitalism.Name any country that practice what you call s ...
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  What African country took state capitalism (Nothing like state capitalism) are you ashamed to call socialism what it is, dummy?
  
  Fool, now Nkrumahism is called state capitalism.Name any country that practice what you call state capitalism and I will show you a failed socialist economy.

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• Kojo T 11 years ago

  I am not .If the State puts up capital and therefore owns the enterprise, what is that ?Socialism is State ownership as opposed to private ownership.The fuss you guys make is surprising.Other factors to create wealth remain ...
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  I am not .If the State puts up capital and therefore owns the enterprise, what is that ?Socialism is State ownership as opposed to private ownership.The fuss you guys make is surprising.Other factors to create wealth remain the same,enterprise, land, and labor. Sarps are you now Cano ?

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• Prof Lungu 11 years ago

  ERIE CANAL - PUBLIC FUNDS: (1817)
  
  "$7 million...
  On April 15th, 1817, the New York State Legislature finally approved construction of the Erie Canal...The bill authorized $7 million for construction of the 363-mile long w ...
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  ERIE CANAL - PUBLIC FUNDS: (1817)
  
  "$7 million...
  On April 15th, 1817, the New York State Legislature finally approved construction of the Erie Canal...The bill authorized $7 million for construction of the 363-mile long waterway, which was to be 40 feet wide and four feet deep.
  
  
  "...The Erie Canal is an artificial waterway that connects the Hudson River to Lake Erie. This historic waterway, first completed in 1825, is one of the most important projects in the development and success of New York and the United States. Then Governor DeWitt Clinton had a great vision to create a man-made waterway connecting Albany to Buffalo which would allow raw materials from the west to be transported cheaply to the populated eastern seaboard. His idea was met with harsh criticism and his opposition dubbed the idea as Clinton's Ditch or Clinton's Folly, but he pressed on. On the fourth of July, 1817, Clinton's Ditch was started in Rome, where there was a long level section to be dug. The Erie Canal was completed from Albany to Buffalo in the fall of 1825 and was an immediate success; it secured New York as the Empire State.
  To this day the Erie Canal still serves the boating community in providing safe passage to Upstate New York and beyond. The canal was enlarged and straightened many times and the current version stretches 338 miles from Waterford on the Hudson River to Lake Erie near Buffalo. The canal was originally built as a means for commercial traffic, but it has transformed into a recreational boater's dream. The Erie Canal is lined with dozens of canal towns offering all the services that a transient boater would need.
  Today's canal has 34 Locks and is at least 120 feet wide and 12 feet deep. It has a vertical clearance of 21 feet between Waterford and Three Rivers (Oswego Canal junction), and 15.5 feet between the Three Rivers and Lake Erie. The locks are significantly larger than those of 175 years ago at 328 feet long and 45 feet wide, large enough for almost all recreational cruisers as well as large commercial barges to pass through. The largest vessels can be as large as 300 feet long by 43.5 feet wide...."
  SOURCE: www.nycanals.com/Erie_Canal
  
  
  So, you will see that the public canal (that Baidoo will argue shoud have been built through private enterprise even when private enterprise was nowhere to be found, had major impact outside New York State:
  
  FOR MICHIGAN STATE
  "...The completion in 1825 of the Erie Canal (below), connecting Lake Erie with the Hudson River, was an event of major importance in Michigan history because it greatly facilitated the transportation of passengers and freight between the eastern seaboard and Michigan ports...//
  
  "...The canal, built by the state of New York at a cost of $7 million, was such a success that within three years toll charges had paid the cost of construction plus interest charges. For the first time, New England families, anxious to leave rocky and infertile fields for richer lands in the West, had a route for reaching the "promised land." Furthermore, the waterway provided not only an easier way to move to Michigan but access to markets in the East. Freight rates between Buffalo and New York were reduced from $100 a ton to $25 a ton with the opening of an all-water route between the two cities, and the rates soon fell even lower.
  Important as it was, the Erie Canal did not cause the great migration to Michigan; it only facilitated that movement. This is shown by the fact that public land sales at Detroit reached a high point in 1825, the year the Erie Canal opened, and then declined in the years immediately following. Whereas 92,232 acres had been sold in 1825, sales were down to 70,441 by 1830.
  The Erie Canal, in New York state (shown below), was 360 mi (580 km) long, and connected New York with the Great Lakes via the Hudson River. Locks were built to overcome the 571-ft (174-m) difference between the level of the river and that of Lake Erie..."
  SOURCE: www.geo.msu.edu/extra/geogmich/eriecanal.html

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• Prof Lungu 11 years ago

  GREAT NORTHERN - COMPARISON USING OUTLIER!
  
  
  READ: "...The Great Northern was the only privately funded — and successfully built — transcontinental railroad in U.S. history..."
  
  WE SAY: It is not as if many private ...
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  GREAT NORTHERN - COMPARISON USING OUTLIER!
  
  
  READ: "...The Great Northern was the only privately funded — and successfully built — transcontinental railroad in U.S. history..."
  
  WE SAY: It is not as if many private entrepreneurs did not try. Many tried and failed, even with government land grants, as capital.
  
  
  READ: "...(Great Northern's James Jerome) Hill received federal taxpayer subsidies to construct the Great Northern...".
  
  FROM GN ADVERT: 750,000 ACRES OF INDIAN LAND OPEN TO SETTLERS: Bought from the US Government (Sold to settlers for $1.25 to $7.00 per acre).
  
  James Jerome Hill "received two million acres of land through the Minnesota Land Grant for completing the rail line on time... (A) major increase of immigrants from Norway and Sweden allowed Hill to sell homesteads from the land grant for $2.50 to $5 an acre."
  
  "...Hill sent employees to Europe to show slides of western farming in efforts to urge Scotsmen, Englishmen, Norwegians, and Swedes to settle in the Pacific northwest. As a result, more than six million acres of Montana were settled in two years. And because of Hill, the small town of Seattle, Washington, became a major international shipping port..."

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• francis kwarteng 11 years ago

  Dear Prof. Lungu,
  
  Baidoo apparently has deficits in the area of political economy and urban history, particularly as they relate to America.
  
  I will therefore recommend the works of Harvard University Prof. Arthur Schl ...
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  Dear Prof. Lungu,
  
  Baidoo apparently has deficits in the area of political economy and urban history, particularly as they relate to America.
  
  I will therefore recommend the works of Harvard University Prof. Arthur Schllesinger, Sr.'s works (and those of doctoral students) for his reading pleasure.
  
  These works will remove his deficits when it comes to (American) planning, land economy, urban history, and development among others. In fact, he should have read these works before embarking on anything that has to with construction, development, etc., in America as they pertain to private and public interests.
  
  Even your two-part comments on this forum weaken Baidoo's arguments on the question of development in America vis-a-vis private and public investments/interests.
  
  This is what we get when people rush to write without consulting authoritative sources to inform their fundamental arguments and assumtions!
  
  Thanks.

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• MARCUS AMPADU 11 years ago

  P. K. Baidoo Jnr. obviously you are a capitalist and not a socialist. Winston Churchill and Margeret Thatcher are your heroes; as I said in my previous commentary you made short shift of mixed economy at a time when it is bec ...
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  P. K. Baidoo Jnr. obviously you are a capitalist and not a socialist. Winston Churchill and Margeret Thatcher are your heroes; as I said in my previous commentary you made short shift of mixed economy at a time when it is becoming widespread throughout the world.
  
  Because of the need to be sustainable, nations are choosing to go for sustainability, instead of out and out capitalism or socialism. Private-Public-Partnership are becoming the norm. From Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, to Thailand, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu to Zambia.
  
  Please let the can of worms stay sealed.
  
  And I would certainly advise the Ghana government & other governments in Africa to strive for sustainability rather than seeking unsustainable paths in socialism and capitalism that would be a bridge to nowhere for our nations.

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• Kojo T 11 years ago

  But what stops Phillip and his advocates from practicing capitalism ?Where are the Ghanaians to run their Airways, Shipping lines, Fishing corporations, Telephone companies, Shipbuilding , railways, Valco, and just name it. T ...
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  But what stops Phillip and his advocates from practicing capitalism ?Where are the Ghanaians to run their Airways, Shipping lines, Fishing corporations, Telephone companies, Shipbuilding , railways, Valco, and just name it. These arguments to me are purile and a waste of time.Nkrumah did what he could 50 yrs ago and Phillip get the Ghanaians together to invest so jobs can be created for the youth FDIs to me are just an addition .We have political independence ,let us get the economic ndependence .Stop wasting our time

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• Abeeku Mensah 11 years ago

  Do you know there is not a single nation in Western Europe or the Americas that practices through and true democracy without infusion of socialist practices Mr. Baidoo Jnr? Is it that you do not see, feel and or think you liv ...
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  Do you know there is not a single nation in Western Europe or the Americas that practices through and true democracy without infusion of socialist practices Mr. Baidoo Jnr? Is it that you do not see, feel and or think you live it because all that matters in your corner of the world is wrapping yourself in the democratic and free market flag? Do you not have some level of free education, level of societal government benefit that comes from a collective pool of contributions from workers and do you not have government funded projects and development across communities in the British Isles? Do you truly understand socialism or do you, like most, bought into the elementary level definition of socialism by those who have self interest in the sale of democratic ideals and not realities of democracy and free market principles? No one pays for the full cost of education, poor or rich, in the UK and there is a greater probability that the rich do support the middle class and the poor in many ways; they are socialist principles taking away from the rich to supplement the poor, Mr. Baidoo Jnr. not labels. Furthermore you talk in abstract terms ignoring state institutions staffed by civil servants. If ineffectiveness and mediocrity is rife in government run institutions then why is it possible to maintain the men and women who have toiled in civil service posts from one generation to another? There is no denying democratic values serve most of the needs of men relative to socialism/communism and the rest but not because of some higher moral grounding in Biblical Christian principles.
  Finally I say to you that you will be delusional if you think you're being paid your labors worth as the next man or women working next to you and it is not because of productivity and or built in motivation brought on by democratic values but the built-in greed and manipulation free market values carry; discrimination is a direct byproduct.

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• kakabo 11 years ago

  Somebody told me that he can forgive anybody who claims to be socialist before the person attains the age of adulthood. After adulthood, if anybody claims to be a socialist, pull him aside and give him a hiding and afterwards ...
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  Somebody told me that he can forgive anybody who claims to be socialist before the person attains the age of adulthood. After adulthood, if anybody claims to be a socialist, pull him aside and give him a hiding and afterwards send him to asylum for his head to be properly examined. Good day to you socialist if there is any.

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• YAW 11 years ago

  Baidoo, has nothing to say but you have to read a long-winded article to find that out.His narrow mind goes with his big mouth.Now,how many private companies queued up to buy RBS,Lloyds,Northern Rock,Abn Amro and all the majo ...
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  Baidoo, has nothing to say but you have to read a long-winded article to find that out.His narrow mind goes with his big mouth.Now,how many private companies queued up to buy RBS,Lloyds,Northern Rock,Abn Amro and all the major banks that failed.The UK government forked out £850 billion to bail them out.Why are state owned companies like SNCF/Deutsche Bahn in France and Germany running the privatised railways in Britain? Is state owned Singapore Airlines bankrupt? who elected Acheampong as the head of state of Ghana? Do you know the meaning of the word "propriety" in any system of governance?

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• francis kwarteng 11 years ago

  Dear YAW,
  
  Baidoo has no idea what he is talking about.
  
  He has not done any serious reading on the subject, including the Nkrumah era.
  
  There are tons of written texts on the mixed eonomy as it was practiced under Nk ...
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  Dear YAW,
  
  Baidoo has no idea what he is talking about.
  
  He has not done any serious reading on the subject, including the Nkrumah era.
  
  There are tons of written texts on the mixed eonomy as it was practiced under Nkrumah and this guy is here talking about what God knows what he's trying to say.
  
  Like you said, European governments (Britain included) bailed out sections of their private sectors and here is this guy talking about cluelessly...
  
  Thanks.

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