Vietnam is formally known as the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. It’s officially communist today. But like most officially-communist countries, they operate with a significant amount of capitalism. In some ways more so than officially capitalist countries, with a lot of businesses being under-regulated and prone to exploitation. If you have a bad experience with a business, you’re much less likely to be able to use the law to make you whole again than you would somewhere with strong consumer protection laws like the EU or Australia. It’s much closer, in some ways, to that libertarian caveat emptor ideal. But it’s also got a strong welfare state that looks a lot more genuinely socialist.
It’s also an authoritarian single-party state, which those of us in the west usually associate with communist countries, but realistically is kind of a separate spectrum. Sometimes the government can step in and use that power for good, such as somewhat regular attempted (though usually ultimately ineffective) crackdowns on corruption, which runs rampant. Sometimes it’s less good, such as also somewhat regular attempted (and likewise ultimately ineffective) crackdowns on online free speech. On this latter point, I recall when I lived there 15+ years ago they at one point tried to block Facebook. Word quickly spread around my school that changing your DNS settings to a particular number would bypass the restriction. (This is before quad9, quad1, or Google’s quad8, so the number was a bit harder to remember.) It’s not a country where you want to be on the government’s bad side, but it’s generally speaking much softer in that regard than the PRC or DPRK.
Thanks, definitely sounds like a mixed bag. If im understanding correctly, the citizens, as a basis, have it pretty good under socialst capitalism in Vietnam. The issues arrise in speaking out against the government and having no protections as a consumer, as well as government censorship.
Assuming i got the gist of that correct(lmk if i did not) then it sounds good overall. What sortve socialist programs do they have? More specifically, do they have any form of ubi? Because if so, buisnesses screwing you over seems like a much smaller issue since you have financial security anyways.
Ngl this definitely crossed my mind reading your comment
Vietnam is formally known as the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. It’s officially communist today. But like most officially-communist countries, they operate with a significant amount of capitalism. In some ways more so than officially capitalist countries, with a lot of businesses being under-regulated and prone to exploitation. If you have a bad experience with a business, you’re much less likely to be able to use the law to make you whole again than you would somewhere with strong consumer protection laws like the EU or Australia. It’s much closer, in some ways, to that libertarian caveat emptor ideal. But it’s also got a strong welfare state that looks a lot more genuinely socialist.
It’s also an authoritarian single-party state, which those of us in the west usually associate with communist countries, but realistically is kind of a separate spectrum. Sometimes the government can step in and use that power for good, such as somewhat regular attempted (though usually ultimately ineffective) crackdowns on corruption, which runs rampant. Sometimes it’s less good, such as also somewhat regular attempted (and likewise ultimately ineffective) crackdowns on online free speech. On this latter point, I recall when I lived there 15+ years ago they at one point tried to block Facebook. Word quickly spread around my school that changing your DNS settings to a particular number would bypass the restriction. (This is before quad9, quad1, or Google’s quad8, so the number was a bit harder to remember.) It’s not a country where you want to be on the government’s bad side, but it’s generally speaking much softer in that regard than the PRC or DPRK.
Thanks, definitely sounds like a mixed bag. If im understanding correctly, the citizens, as a basis, have it pretty good under socialst capitalism in Vietnam. The issues arrise in speaking out against the government and having no protections as a consumer, as well as government censorship.
Assuming i got the gist of that correct(lmk if i did not) then it sounds good overall. What sortve socialist programs do they have? More specifically, do they have any form of ubi? Because if so, buisnesses screwing you over seems like a much smaller issue since you have financial security anyways.
Ngl this definitely crossed my mind reading your comment