The Authoritarian Capitalist Paradise

Via, Ezra...

More evidence that an open market does not inevitably lead to Western-style democracy. A while ago, a Tyler Cowen post about Singapore lead me to ponder this point. Singapore is a living, breathing example of a thriving Authoritarian Capitalist Paradise. Now, Singapore is cute because it is small, prosperous and ridiculously well-run. You don't get to chew gum and the state reserves the right to cane you if you done bad, but on the other hand the streets are clean and there are lots of malls. But the idea of a China in which the CCP figures out how to perpetuate itself indefinitely by keeping the economy humming even as it keeps 1,306,313,812 people under their thumb is too horrible.