OCR Text |
Show .FREE ENTERPRISE ,IAKES BELGIUM y A HAPPY COUNTRY economic map of po fj highest has given lts Peop livmg-and from simple necessity to fantas tic luxuries, according to repo from American correspondents. , SrSy Acting tl T economic policies of control austo ity and state ownership otmiv try so much in fashion with her impoverished neighbors with their "planned" and "controlled" econ-omies. econ-omies. In contrast to almost every other country of Europe, Belgium, after her liberation, has pursued a policy of free trade, expansion and free enterprise. As one correspondent put it, "One gains the impression that Belgium's prosperity is In direct di-rect proportion to the degree it has shunned practical socialist economies." econ-omies." Of all the countries in the war, Beligum alone has a genuinely prosperous people, well clothed and well fed. Only certain basic foods, such as bread, meat, butter and sugar, are rationed, and the ration is relatively liberal. Anything else one can think of clothes, shoes, American automobiles, gasoline, cigarettes, luxury goods can be had for the asking. Business is booming because Belgium planned plan-ned for free enterprise instead of "planned economy." 1 |