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Why Isn’t the Whole World Rich?

asteriskmag.com

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Re: Why Isn’t the Whole World Rich?

#91

Post by jongjong »

somedude895 wrote: post #53
jongjong wrote: post #12

Simple answer; people from rich countries will use flaws in the political structures of certain other countries to install corrupt politicians; these politicians are then going to work for the interests of their rich foreign patrons and against the interests of their own people (for kickbacks/self-enrichment). The corrupt politicians will do things like saddle their people with significant public debts (which will fo…

> Simple answer; No, read the article before commenting please. Edit: I just realized this comment breaks the site's rules > Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. I do wish @dang was around though, most of the comments in here don't reference the article at all, even though it's really insightful.

The article touches on corruption but it dances around the root causes of corruption and the international debt-based monetary system which systematizes it.

Woke politicians and economists are all too happy to talk up the cause of oppressed minorities until you point out the possibility that they are the root cause of the oppression... No, it's not the ancestors from a distant past who are the oppressors, it's happening now.

Re: Why Isn’t the Whole World Rich?

#92

Post by zozbot234 »

pydry wrote: post #81
zozbot234 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not locked out, they just might have to pay retaliatory tariffs. The whole issue is countries that institute such mercantile tariffs in the first place tend to be exactly the ones where elites do not believe in export-driven growth, and pursue failing top-down schemes that increase their own petty influence within those same countries.

>they just might have to pay retaliatory tariffs. That was, again, the whole point. A nascent Hyundai + retaliatory tarriffs => no Hyundai => South Korea remains 3rd world

> A nascent Hyundai + retaliatory tarriffs => no Hyundai

Says who? Plenty of countries successfully pursued industrialization in the 19th and early 20th century, back when tariffs were the norm.

Re: Why Isn’t the Whole World Rich?

#93

Post by wizeman »

zozbot234 wrote: post #52
jongjong wrote: post #12

Simple answer; people from rich countries will use flaws in the political structures of certain other countries to install corrupt politicians; these politicians are then going to work for the interests of their rich foreign patrons and against the interests of their own people (for kickbacks/self-enrichment). The corrupt politicians will do things like saddle their people with significant public debts (which will fo…

> That's why, as a regular citizen, it's vitally important to live in a country which has reliable, honest politicians. There is no way to ensure reliable and honest politicians. The best you can do is hope most policymakers are at least somewhat honest, and then institute stringent checks and balances to ensure a corrupt politician can't do too much damage. Which is what most developed democracies do, with varying d…

Or you could just have strong (and enforced) laws that greatly limit how much power politicians have and then you wouldn't have to keep all these additional layers of corrupt politicians, institutions and government bureaucrats fighting with each other about who gets to be corrupt every 4 years.

How to achieve that is left as an exercise for the reader :)

Re: Why Isn’t the Whole World Rich?

#94

Post by adam_arthur »

It’s simple.

Countries that adopt competitive and capitalist oriented markets do well, those that don’t, don’t.

Populist driven economic policies have failed over and over again. How many centuries of history is necessary for people to understand this?

Re: Why Isn’t the Whole World Rich?

#95

Post by SuoDuanDao »

docdeek wrote: post #18
newyankee wrote: post #8

One reason is how much ever we try to disagree, the socio economic construct is still a zero sum game with an ever increasing pie. People who argue otherwise point to the size of the pie without practically ever stating what those in difficult positions can realistically do to get more of it. Other reasons are that honestly there is not much "real work" to be done so we can argue that a very small % of existing popul…

FTA: In 2019 there were about 648 million people living in extreme poverty, subsisting on the equivalent of $2.15 per day or less. Those 648 million people made up 8.4% of world population — representing an improvement over 1990, when 35.9% of people lived on that little. This seems to be the inverse of a zero-sum game: the West might have got a lot richer, but hundreds of millions of people were lifeted out of extre…

that reduction in inequality did probably come at the expense of the first world's middle class though, a process that may not be completed.

Re: Why Isn’t the Whole World Rich?

#97

Post by karpierz »

zozbot234 wrote: post #73
karpierz wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have their debts forgiven on the basis of adopting certain policies (free market reform) that allows corporations from wealthy countries to set up shop and extract raw materials from the counter while avoiding giving back to the country via taxes. The profits get booked in Singapore or the Bahamas, and the stock price keeps going up.

Free market reforms do not forbid taxes on natural resource extraction. The U.S. has plenty of such taxes, and they score very highly on measures of economic freedom.

Of course. But we aren't talking about the States, we're talking about countries that are forced into return as a condition of loan forgiveness.

Some of those conditions involves avoiding any sort of export tariffs and using the declared value of goods to calculate profits (ex: if I spent 20$ extracting copper, and sold it for 20$ to an overseas company which totally isn't related to me, then the taxable profit in your country is 0$).

Re: Why Isn’t the Whole World Rich?

#98

Post by hattmall »

mathverse wrote: post #25
jongjong wrote: post #12

Simple answer; people from rich countries will use flaws in the political structures of certain other countries to install corrupt politicians; these politicians are then going to work for the interests of their rich foreign patrons and against the interests of their own people (for kickbacks/self-enrichment). The corrupt politicians will do things like saddle their people with significant public debts (which will fo…

This is true but the example in the article (South Korea) is one of the most corrupt rich countries out there.

It's more about making the corruption accessible. Corruption is inevitable, this is covered in Plato's Republic and still holds true today. If people were not corrupt there would be campaigns to avoid political office, not seeking it.

The difference many times in the level of success of a nation is the level and accessibility of corruption. The US is extremely corrupt, political office is held almost entirely as a means of personal enrichment. Economic consideration is exchanged quid pro quo as a matter of fact in many scenarios. However these corrupt practices are carried out in an open format under a set of guidelines that mean anyone with money can access the corrupt system. Anyone can look at the system and say objectively "this is wrong" but doing away with it only pushes it behind closed doors and limits access to a select few.

Re: Why Isn’t the Whole World Rich?

#100

Post by FollowingTheDao »

South Korea succeeded succeed they did not get involved with the IMF. The IMF creates poverty.

https://www.e-ir.info/2013/03/16/why-did-south-korea-grow-ri...

Entry by multinational organisations was restricted as a means of maintaining its independence. South Korea also avoided ‘debt for equity traps’ when undergoing International Monetary Fund (IMF) stabilization policies in response to the debt crisis in the 1970s.

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