Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Luxury imports to North Korea are booming while people starve

I've seen a number of memes on Facebook lately that go something along the lines of "we have the resources to eliminate poverty, so let's stop it." This is the unfortunate reality of absolute poverty - it's bad policies, corruption and governments (Time):

The North Korean regime under Kim Jong Un may not be able to feed its citizens, but it successfully feeds a booming market for luxury goods imports, a new South Korean government report shows. Citing the report on Monday, lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun said that the imports of products like furs, pets and mid-sized sedans reached $645.8 million last year, compared to an average of around $300 million under the previous leader, Kim Jong Il.

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