But many of these state – owned enterprises had grown to be enormously corrupt, bloated, inefficient, and noncompetitive. In many countries they were seen as gigantic “ watering troughs” for corrupt politicians and employees to rip off to the maximum extent possible. Often at the same time , they became gigantic patronage operations by which politicians and government officials paid off their political debts by putting hundreds, even thousands, or sometimes whole ethic groups on the public payroll. These were not just handfuls of patronage positions, as in your local city hall, but literally a means to pay off whole classes, enemies as well as supporters, by giving them access to public positions for which they seldom showed up to work, only to collect their paychecks. The state – owned enterprises in all countries were shot full of corruption and inefficiencies often requiring thirty to forty employees to do the work of three or four, and thus making them uncompetitive on world markets. Particularly as the super-efficient East Asian economies geared up for maximum production in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, the corruption and inefficiency- riddled statist enterprises of Latin America, Sub saharan