Why Poor Countries Are Poor
reason.com
Why Poor Countries Are Poor
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Re: Why Poor Countries Are Poor
#2The article is a bit too much of a case study to justify the generalization in its title...
Re: Why Poor Countries Are Poor
#3Those interested in the topic might pick up a copy of Robert Bates' Markets and States in Sub-Saharan Africa which details some of the political-institutional points of failure for developing economies in Africa.
Re: Why Poor Countries Are Poor
#4More discussion here:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=382899
Re: Why Poor Countries Are Poor
#5It sounds like government in Cameroon is effectively organized crime, but I imagine most criminal organizations would run the country more efficiently and more profitably. Would the government do a better job if it stopped mimicking the institutions of high-functioning countries and was frankly exploitative?
Re: Why Poor Countries Are Poor
#6Here's an older article which basically says the same thing from someone who lived in Africa.
Re: Why Poor Countries Are Poor
#7It sounds like government in Cameroon is effectively organized crime, but I imagine most criminal organizations would run the country more efficiently and more profitably. Would the government do a better job if it stopped mimicking the institutions of high-functioning countries and was frankly exploitative?
You'd think. But actual organized criminals like bootleggers are/were generally not terribly efficient either.
Here's one way to look at it: very, very smart criminals should do much less damage to their victims than they seem to, just for reasons of self-interest. This is primarily because the first world has made it more individually profitable for very, very smart criminals to go legit, either in business or politics. This leaves actual visible criminal activity to those not smart enough, or not disciplined enough, to take that route.
Don't shake your head at how awful it is when a high-up executive at a major corporation turns out to be a complete sociopath. Marvel that society has gotten so much good out of that clever, ambitious sociopath. And be glad that crime is emphatically not as good a career path for him.
Re: Why Poor Countries Are Poor
#8This is a chapter in The Undercover Economist, a book that I just finished reading last week: http://www.amazon.com/Undercover-Economist-Exposing-Poor-Dec...
It's a great introductory economics book for the layman.
Re: Why Poor Countries Are Poor
#9The article is a bit too much of a case study to justify the generalization in its title...
Especially when there are a variety of similar countries in the vicinity with a variety of governments but with similar levels of poverty.
Re: Why Poor Countries Are Poor
#10The article is a bit too much of a case study to justify the generalization in its title...
That's because the author is not generalizing from the case of Cameroon. He's generalizing from his years of experience in economics and using Cameroon as a real-life example to get his points across.