Income Inequality in North Korea

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/06/income-inequality-in-north-korea

Michael Gerson has a moving column about North Korea based on an interview with someone who was able to escape and who now runs Free North Korea Radio:

"On his birthday, Kim Jong Il would give Mercedes-Benzes to people in the privileged classes," he told me. "He would shower them with tangerines and bananas, which most North Koreans citizens never see." (Consider an economy in which tangerines are symbols of privilege.) "But once while I was traveling on business, I saw a pile of 20 corpses lying on the ground" -- victims of starvation. "This was not uncommon...

Somehow those who see income inequality as a big problem with capitalism don't seem to get as worked up over income inequality in Communism.

by Ira Stoll  |  Jun 11, 2010 at 7:53 am Related Topics:  Income Inequality, Press receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list