Namibia Is A Socialist State
S McCARTHY, I would like to comment on your letters to The Namibian.
Are you sure you understand socialism or do you confuse it with communism?
According to my knowledge socialism is when a government takes part in a capitalist market to safeguard markets or products that are of national interest. Like providing electricity, water and telecommunication to all in Namibia – NamPower, Regional Electricity Distributors (REDs), NamWater and Telecom.
S McCarthy, you live in a socialist state, because at independence there where only about 15 SOEs (state-owned enterprises) in Namibia. I think with Meatco and the mining company we can safely say that there are about 50 SOEs in Namibia. The Swapo government created them to safeguard top jobs for its cronies.
In the capitalist countries everybody tries to move away from the above model, because it costs the taxpayer too much money to safeguard other people’s jobs.
Do you realise, S McCarthy, that a person in Namibia who earns about N$10 000 a month pays 50 per cent tax? If your salary is N$10 000 you will pay about N$2 000 for personal income tax and with the municipality’s new rates and fees in Windhoek you will pay almost N$2 500 per month. Two tax deductions for socialism. With socialism it is okay that the municipal salaries account for one third of the budget. But there is no money to feed the poor on the dumpsites.
With socialism it is okay to pour money into the bottomless pits we call Air Namibia and TransNamib, as long as some people have work. The end justifies the means. If it was a capitalist system and it was not run effectively and efficiently it would go under and therefore create new opportunities for more companies to open doors and employ more people. But companies must not receive tax money or tax cuts to run and remain in business. If so we are back to socialism.
Remember Margaret Thatcher? She had the ugly job to break up her socialist state. Remember how the people in Newcastle and elsewhere went on strikes because of her policies? What happened to Leyland? Land Rover? MG? Rover? What happened to the UK’s engineering and motor vehicle industries after the collapse of socialism? They went under because they were boys in a man’s world.
S McCarthy, look around you and see what the SOEs are costing the companies in the capitalist system and people working in the capitalist system. We are the only system that brings in new money, a socialist or communist system cannot generate new money. Capitalists pay the bills, not socialism.
Theuns
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