
Thus, they usually favour short-term profits on limited investments in specific sectors. They only invest and produce for a handsome profit in a foreseeable timeframe.

After all, capitalists are not charitable institutions. It is on both of these grounds that such investments are not attractive to capitalist sources of finance.
LEAPFROG CONNECT ERROR 2046 PLUS
Plus a wider perspective which recognises that the advantages of such investments are not just limited to a particular sector but apply across the board. The problem is that to build up the infrastructure of a nation requires long-term major investments. Large parts of South Asia have problems of repeated power cuts which disrupt their potential for growth and modernisation. But this latter problem is not restricted to Africa. Similarly, large areas of Africa have little or no electricity with all the limitations this means for economic activity and even basic homelife. Especially when it rains and the roads become clogged with mud. As a result in most of the continent transportation of people and commodities becomes extremely difficult. For instance, only 30% of Africa’s roads are paved. It is precisely the lack of such facilities that has been holding Africa back and other areas of the developing world. Without these elements in place a country will not be able to develop effectively. The same is true for other elements of infrastructure such as water delivery, land management, power, communications and so on. And it produces new opportunities for socio-economic advancement for the population as a whole. By reducing the time it takes to move people and goods around it improves peoples’ productivity and efficiency. This enormously increases trade and economic activity within a country. Such links open up whole regions and rural areas and connect them to the cities. Take the example of improving transportation through the construction of roads and shipping ports bridges and tunnels railways and airports. On the other hand, good and expanding infrastructure greatly helps an economy build and grow. The lack of up-to-date infrastructure seriously undermines a country’s economy. Even when they did decide to switch priorities they usually proved unable to mount effective health campaigns to test, trace and isolate people who had the virus. And more focused on helping their companies to keep making profits. And their governments proved less concerned with protecting the health of their citizens. In these countries, the hospitalisation and death rates were very low.īut in most capitalist countries in the world their health infrastructure was woefully inadequate. Or the more socialistically-oriented countries such as China, Vetnam, Laos, Cambodia, Cuba and Venezuela. Or geographically isolated countries such as New Zealand, Australia and South Korea. These included the most advanced nations such as Germany.

In a few countries, government capacity, community support and health facilities were sufficient. The latest example of inadequate infrastructure has been exposed in the ongoing Coronavirus crisis.

The infrastructure that does exist is often ageing and in serious need of repair and renovation. Thus, there are a lack of convenient and fast transportation systems of modern communication networks of clean water and modern sewage facilities of sufficient electric supply of effective public services and so on. Reflecting this, in many capitalist countries we see major shortfalls in infrastructure. The central economic problem today in the capitalist world is the lack of investment. The Importance of Infrastructure Investment For both, investment determines much of the economic destiny of a nation. For developed countries it is the lifeblood of economic advance. The graph below clearly confirms this tendency.įor developing countries, investment provides the building blocks on which an economy is built.

The only way out of this crisis is through a programme of public investment linked to a democratic public banking serviceĪll other things being equal, those nations that invest a larger amount of their incomes will tend to have much faster growth than those which don’t. But investment under capitalism has been falling for nearly 50 years.
LEAPFROG CONNECT ERROR 2046 GENERATOR
Investment is the main motor of economic growth and the basic generator of employment. Draft Topic for our ‘ Transformation, a Manifesto for Democratic Socialism’
