Obligatory Imperialist Post
Because it's Columbus Power-Mad Dead White Dude Day. Insty posted about Admiral of the Ocean Sea (great book) which gives you a great Columbus overview, but entirely misses the Power-Mad Dead White Dude thing.
As a public service, here's something that you should read if you really want to make a liberal's head explode like the fembots in Austin Powers. Or understand why the world's economy is the way it is. The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, by David Landes. The title is intentionally taken from Adam Smith, but Landes focuses less on describing economics per se, and more on the constraints that a society puts on their economy.
It traces the history of economic development over the last 1000 years, and asks some very politically incorrect questions:
The quote for this [2008] election season, if we're smart enough to listen, is about the post-Cold War economies:
shizzle flippity floppity floop.
Contradiction between pretension and performance: nice phrase, that. For an example, see Patrick, Deval. For extra credit, compare and contrast Obama, Barack.
Dang, I think I must have just got my Hate Speech on, right there.
As a public service, here's something that you should read if you really want to make a liberal's head explode like the fembots in Austin Powers. Or understand why the world's economy is the way it is. The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, by David Landes. The title is intentionally taken from Adam Smith, but Landes focuses less on describing economics per se, and more on the constraints that a society puts on their economy.It traces the history of economic development over the last 1000 years, and asks some very politically incorrect questions:
- Why did China, the world's richest and most powerful country in 1000 AD not only lose her lead, but lose it so badly that it was dismembered by the European (and later resurgent Japanese) powers?
- Why did India, fabulously wealthy and populous, not conquor the west, rather than vice-versa?
- Why did England, an undeveloped backwater as late as 1500 AD, ultimately lead the Industrial Revolution and become the world's most powerful country?
- What explains the vast differences in economic development between the USA and Canada, and other New World countries? After all, in 1700, Mexico's GDP per capita was $450, not far short of the colonies' $490 (1985 dollars). In 1989, Mexico's GDP per capita was $3,500, vs. $18,300 for the USA.
The quote for this [2008] election season, if we're smart enough to listen, is about the post-Cold War economies:
Among the heaviest losers in this period of record-breaking economic growth and technological advance were the countries of the Communist Socialist bloc: the Soviet Union at the bottom of the barrel, Romania and North Korea almost as bad, and a range of satellite victims and emulators struggling to rise above the mess. Best off were probably Czechoslovkia and Hungary, with East Germany (the DDR) and Poland trailing behind. The striking feature of these command economies was the contradiction between system and pretensions on the one hand, performance on the other. The logic was impeccable: experts would plan, zealots would compete in zeal, technology would tame nature, labor would make free, the benefits would accrue to all. From each according to their ability; to each according to his deserts; and eventually, to each according to his needs.You'll hate this if you think that economics a la John Kerry and Barack Obama is the
The dream appealed to the victims and critics of capitalism, admittedly a most imperfect system - but as it turned out, far better than the alternatives. Hence the Marxist economies long enjoyed a willful credulous favor among radicals, liberals, and progressives in the advanced industrial nations;
Contradiction between pretension and performance: nice phrase, that. For an example, see Patrick, Deval. For extra credit, compare and contrast Obama, Barack.
Dang, I think I must have just got my Hate Speech on, right there.
The GDP per capita ratio for data from 2016 shows the US is 7 times the GDP per capita of Mexico.
ReplyDeleteLooks like it is getting worse.
By the way, comrades, Bill Gates is worth more than the entire GDP of Cuba, for what that is worth.
Well, actually, it is all about the dead white dudes who created a system wherein innovation, exploration and adaptation were and are rewarded both financially and physically.
ReplyDeleteWhich is a very uncomfortable statement in today's world, but, well, there it is.
China could have become us, so could India, the Ottoman Empire, the Byzantine Empire and so forth.
Imperial Japan and post-war South Korea and Japan are very different than the above negative examples. They both grafted on 'dead white male culture' onto their cultures, and embraced innovation and adaptability.
Mexico? Not so much. At one time Argentina and Chile coulda been there, but they both fell off the track. The rest of Central and South America? Nope, too steeped in the 'family only' culture.
Superb book, far superior to Guns, Germs, and Steel.
ReplyDeleteI would guess a big driver of this economic growth is the minimization of corruption. America has government corruption at all levels but it's not to the point where it is dysfunctional and impacts people's daily lives.
ReplyDelete