ABSTRACT
Equity issues are of considerable importance, not only for moral reasons but also to maintain some sort of social stability under the great pressures created by rapid economic development. However, although certain ethical values are probably sufficiently universal for two non-Vietnamese to comment on them legitimately, others clearly are not. Markets inevitably imply capital, so for the mass of the Vietnamese population the shift to a market economy meant a shift in the nature of the class relations within which they worked and lived. Initially, state workers appear to have been in a position to share in the rents acquired by their units and used as a basis for the creation of autonomous capital. The economic rationale for supporting strong collective economic organizations is often associated with the problems created by high risk, coupled with the social value attached to welfare services such as education and health. Acceptance at higher education institutions was based upon competitive examination.
