Re: [FT universe]

 ---- Big Niall (old joke, sorry :-)) wrote: 
> One thing I wonder about the role of the ESU in the FT universe is how
> "Communist" are they in comparison to the now defunct USSR?  If we
take
> China as an example today while it is a nominally communist country it
has
> enormous levels of trade with the rest of the world and on the ground
its
> far more like unrestricted capitalism these days than communism.

modern china is only nominally communist. it is really 
just a vanilla totalitarian dictatorship.

> Entreprenuership is encouraged or at least tolerate so I believe.  So
in
> the next 200 years wouldn't most communist countries have evolved more
> towards free trade rather than central planning?

conversely, is there the possibility that, in a state 
where the planets are seperated by week-long hyperspace 
paths, and there is a huge disparity between the 
populous/industrialised planets and the 
sparse/agricultural planets, that free-market countries 
like the NAC have introduced more central planning?

> I'm intrigued as to how the ESU would differ from the NAC if we
eliminate
> old communist economic  policies from the equation.  

i bet they're both essentially the same. one is a 
dictatorship of the supreme soviet in the name of the 
people, the other is a dictatorship of the 
eton-oxbridge-aristocracy-dominated civil service 
("yes, admiral ...") under the cover of a powerless 
parliament.

> Do the secret police
> hold sway? Freedoms are more restricted?  The NAC being a more class
> oriented soceity has it devolved back to the old ideal of an
aristocracy
> and their cronies running things?  

*back* to the old ideal? the way the rulers of the UK 
and the USA are 75% from established 
wealthy/educated/powerful families. :-)

Tom

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