FMF MEDIA BRIEFING Transformation via legislation vs transformation via growth
11 May 2017
President Zuma is right! South Africa needs radical economic transformation.
We have radical economic stagnation. What we need is radical economic prosperity.
Radical redistribution with stagnation redistributes poverty not wealth.
Had early 1994 pro market reforms continued, the economy would have grown at an average of around 7% per annum and wealth would have quadrupled by now. At the current rate of less than 1%, it will take 140 years for wealth to quadruple.
Speaker: Leon Louw, Executive Director FMF
Wednesday, 17 May 2017
11h00 for 11h30 Registration & finger lunch
11h30 to 13h30 Presentation
RSVP
by clicking on http://www.freemarketfoundation.com/View-Event?i=142&c=bae9e
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Guests welcome: Each person attending please must register individually
Entrance: Free
Venue
Free Market Foundation, Block 5 Bryanston Gate, 170 Curzon Road, Bryanston
(opposite Sandton Medi-Clinic)
Security Please bring this invitation with you as it will speed up the security process; without it you will need to complete the security form at the gate
You will be able to watch this event LIVE via the FMF’s Facebook page by clicking this link: https://www.facebook.com/FMFSA/
Note:
There is no room for informed debate about how radical economic prosperity can be achieved. The evidence is as conclusive as evidence gets in social science that radical economic reform towards slashing the size and functions of government produces prosperity and transformation.
If current policies are maintained or intensified, they will result in continued stagnation. Things are much worse than they seem.
The illusion of stagnation occurs if we measure our performance in terms of rands. In more realistic dollar, sterling or euro terms, we are already experiencing radical economic contraction.
With the perpetuation or intensification of current policy trends towards a greater role for government, more government redistribution, the failure to privatise state-owned enterprises, the highest levels of taxation and spending in our history, and the wild growth of stifling regulation, prosperity and transformation will be impossible.
What the government should do to turn its quest for radical economic transformation into reality is to emulate what governments in high growth transformative countries do and discontinue emulation of failed states.
Speaker: Background:
Leon Louw is a well known South African personality who, for over a generation, has been active in diverse aspects of public life. He is credited with having had a significant impact on the course of events in South Africa, especially regarding the extensive economic reforms that took place during the last two decades of apartheid, and the inclusion of the property rights clause in the constitution. With his wife, Frances Kendall, he was nominated thrice for the Nobel Peace Prize for proposals made in their book South Africa: The Solution. Leon is the Executive Director of the Free Market Foundation.
Note to the editor
The FMF is an independent, non-profit, public benefit organisation, created in 1975 by pro-free market business and civil society national bodies to work for a non-racial, free and prosperous South Africa. As a policy organisation it promotes sound economic policies and the principles of good law. As a think tank it seeks and puts forward solutions to some of the country’s most pressing problems: unemployment, poverty, growth, education, health care, electricity supply, and more. The FMF was instrumental in the post-apartheid negotiations and directly influenced the Constitutional Commission to include the property rights clause: a critical cornerstone of economic freedom.
The FMF has a wealth of information in papers, articles and opinion pieces available on the website which can influence the public debate and present alternative policies to the people of South Africa. Please look at our website www.freemarketfoundation.com .
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