PREFACE
I have written several books on wealth, so why am I now writing a book on poverty? Because, as a result of my research, I have come to the apparently paradoxical conclusion that only a society that allows people to become rich and have a positive attitude toward wealth can overcome poverty.
Representative opinion polls that I have commissioned in numerous countries have revealed that there are two countries in particular in which people have a positive attitude toward wealth and the rich: Poland and Vietnam. At the same time, these are also two countries in which people (despite the different political systems) have a more positive view of the term ‘capitalism’ than their peers in most other countries.
And these are two countries that have made extraordinary gains in economic freedom over the past few decades. The Heritage Foundation has been publishing its Index of Economic Freedom (you could also call it a capitalism index) every year since 1995, and in no countries of comparable size has economic freedom increased as much during that time as in Poland and Vietnam.
There is more that unites these two countries than economic success: Both experienced terrible wars in which many millions of people lost their lives—the Second World War in Poland, and the Indochina War in Vietnam. After the wars ended, socialist planned economies were established in both countries, destroying what the war had not already devastated. As a result, Vietnam became one of the poorest countries in the world and Poland one of the poorest countries in Europe. In this book, I describe life in these countries under a planned economy and reveal how bitterly poor the majority of people in these two countries were.
The Vietnamese initiated a program of market-economy reforms in 1986, called Doi Moi (“innovation” or “renovation” in English). A few years later, Poland also decided to implement market-economy reforms. In both countries, these reforms led to remarkable economic growth and dramatic improvements in living standards. I will illustrate this by using figures and statistics, as well as by drawing on the accounts of Polish and Vietnamese individuals.
This book begins with a chapter in which I explain the con- tinued relevance of Adam Smith’s ideas, which showed that only economic freedom can defeat poverty. I then describe what does not help overcome poverty, namely development aid. From there, I analyze how capitalism has helped people in Vietnam and Poland to improve their standards of living and escape the clutches of poverty. I think many other countries stand to learn a great deal from the experiences of these two countries.
I thank all of my friends in Vietnam and Poland who helped me with this book. Le Chi Mai from Hanoi handled transla- tions and conducted interviews for me, and I thank Nguyen Quoc Minh-Quang, Vu Dinh Loc, Nguyen Trong Hoa, Lam Duc Hung, and Nguyen Thi Quat for the interviews they gave. I would also like to thank the attorney Dr. Oliver Massmann, who has been working in Hanoi for twenty-five years and was instrumental in the formulation of the US-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, for the details he provided. And Dinh Tuan Minh, a representative of a market-economy think-tank, who explained some important things to me during a conversation in Hanoi. I am particularly grateful to Professor Andreas Stoffers, the head of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Vietnam, who provided me with numerous contacts.
In Poland, my publisher Krzysztof Zuber (Wydawnictwo Freedom Publishing) and my advisor Marcin Chmielowski helped me immensely—thank you for that! I would also like to thank the former Minister of Finance of Poland, Professor Leszek Bal- cerowicz, whose reforms were a major reason behind Poland’s economic recovery and rise. In addition, I want to thank Marcin Zieliński (Forum Obywatelskiego Rozwoju), Marek Tatała (Fun- dacja Wolności Gospodarczej), Mateusz Machaj (Instytut Edukacji Ekonomicznej im. Ludwiga von Misesa), Alicja Wancerz-Gluza (co-founder of the Karta Center) and Tomasz Agencki, with whom I produced the film Poland: From Socialism to Prosperity.
I would also like to thank Ansgar Graw, who did an excel- lent job editing the book, and Sebastian Taylor, who translated it into English.
I admire the people in Poland and Vietnam, and I also have something very personal in common with them: because the two longest and most important relationships in my life were with Monika, whose parents came from Poland, and Trang, whose parents are from Vietnam.
Dr. Rainer Zitelmann, December 2023
