blackhawkC17

> The wealth of the West is build on colonialism.

It's built on rule of law, stability, low corruption, and good governance. Most countries lack these factors, making them stay poor.

Signed: Someone from a poor, developing country (Nigeria).

> Do you have any concerns about how capital openly purchases the interests of politicians in the us?

The U.S. and the West at large aren’t perfect, but it fairs much better than most of the world in preventing corruption.

Capital also purchases influence in developing/underdeveloped countries, but in a much worse way. It’s often very cheap because desperate locals are willing to sell out their country for any meager amount.

Here’s a fitting example: Benny Steinmetz (a mining tycoon) paid $8.5 million in bribes to the spouse of Guinea’s former President to obtain exploration permits for a mine [1].

Steinmetz sold 51% of the mine shortly after for $2.5 billion [2]. In other words, he extracted 300x the bribe, and the Guinean official never bothered to think her country was being robbed in broad daylight by the bribe she received.

Many similar cases occur in Africa, wherein foreign companies pay cheap bribes to rob countries of their resources.

The African leaders (and populace) are often willing to part with their resources for cash rather than harnessing it for internal development (this part is difficult, unlike the easy way of collecting cash and spending it foolishly).

Add in endless petty corruption, and the result is the mediocrity of many countries that we see.

1- https://www.reuters.com/business/swiss-court-upholds-corrupt...

2 - https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-1000556396#!

I’m a non-Westerner (Nigerian in particular). Corruption in developing/underdeveloped countries is extremely worse than in developed countries.

My country is a fitting example. Most citizens (of all classes) don’t pay taxes, people pay petty bribes to violate laws, government officers request for bribes to carry out mundane activities like getting a driver’s license or passport, and citizens are happy to oblige.

Everyone wants to bypass the law and feel smart, not realizing that it makes the whole system terrible and everyone poorer in the long run (people generally don’t want to make long-term capital investments in corrupt countries, so that’s why most of Africa struggles to get foreign investment).

This kind of petty corruption is hard to explain to a Westerner who hasn’t experienced it. And it’s no surprise that corruption is keeping African nations (and many nations from other continents) behind.

No country is 100% immune to it. But some countries have developed systems to tame the effects as much as possible.

Examples are most of Western Europe, the U.S., and Canada. There’s a clear correlation between low corruption and high economic development.

> Glad they found oil and now have insane GDP growth.

Guyana has weak political institutions and high corruption & tribalism. It’s more likely to become a poor resource-cursed nation than a successful one.

I truly hope this isn’t the case, but if history teaches us a lesson..

For those wondering, these figures are quoted in the Guyanese dollar, not the U.S. dollar.

1 Guyanese dollar equals 0.0048 USD.

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By this logic, cars and industrialization also enabled fascism.

Some people are so stuck in their bubbles that they can’t imagine anything else.

I wish we had many more “salesmen” like him in other industries.

Communism requires a strongman to enforce top-down.

Most people would reject communism if they had the freedom, so the freedom is one of the first things to go under communist rule.

The Economist's specialty is business and finance, not science. It's not out of the place for their journalists to make such mistakes, the same way many science publications make silly mistakes when talking about business matters.

I think we're in agreement here. I never said the West inherently has more altruism. However, the West's high GDP is what enables Westerners to give more to free computing/internet-related projects offering excellent value.

Without a high GDP, there won't be much to give in the first place.

You didn't read the story but conclude it's a lie? The Economist is a respected publication, the type that cites factual stats rather than spin BS like many mainstream news outlets.

Your personal anecdote/experience doesn't translate into everyone's reality.

Here's another anecdote: many ultra-rich people have committed suicide because they were unhappy. If money bought happiness, they wouldn't have done it.

Happiness is a complex thing. You can visit remote third-world villages and find people living very difficult lives yet very happy because that's all they know and don't bother comparing their situation with others.

Sometimes, I wish the U.S. should suddenly leave the world alone, including NATO. That's when people will realize that the EU is too militarily weak to tackle Russia's aggression, and the Middle East will fall into chaos.

People who yap so much about America frankly deserve a real-life lesson to correct their brains.

> Just because the Central Comittee is called Blackrock, doesn't mean the American economy is not being more and more centrally planned.

Of course, you'll mention BlackRock, the never-ending boogeyman for people with little economic knowledge.

> I see the rest of the world becoming more similar to China than the other way around, unfortunately.

I hope they enjoy the mediocrity that comes with state-dominated economies.

> The US is already a pseudo-Soviet state economically.

Maybe I'm blind, but I have no idea how someone looks at the USA and concludes this.

There should be a word for when someone picks the most extreme situation to prove their point.

Yes, the U.S., Europe, and all well-governed democracies aren't perfect, but they're much better than China in that regard.

A litmus test: U.S. and European citizens are free to challenge their leaders, e.g., the recent glut of anti-establishment parties garnering more votes in the EU. Some of these guys are loons, yet they're free to challenge the status quo because that's part of democracy.

Remind me where Xi Jinping and Putin's political opponents end up again? In jail or dead.

These free things (Wikipedia, Linux, etc.) are sustained by a high GDP that translates to high incomes and, in turn, people willing to donate time and money for them to remain free.

Let's try living in a country with a measly GDP per capita of $1,000 (Rwanda for example) and see how many free things we can get..

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There’s nothing racist about stating that strong institutions and rule of law lead to economic success.

It’s an obvious truth, which many Africans reject for some reason. I’m Nigerian, and my country is a clear example of how excessive corruption and dependence on a natural resource (oil) makes a country mediocre.

Taxes make a government accountable to citizens. While not paying taxes because of oil wealth might seem enticing in the short term, it'll lead to disaster in the long term if a government becomes accountable mainly to the resource industry and neglects to invest in a diversified, productive economy.

Norway has high tax rates despite having oil wealth-- this ensures citizens remain productive and don't get too complacent by depending on a fluctuating commodity.

The nonprofit is controlled by trustees and bound by its charter, not shareholders. Any profit a nonprofit organization makes is retained within the organization for its benefit and mission, not paid out to shareholders.

> How do you know they had no profit with all of the deals with major companies and having one of the most popular software services in existence?

By reading their Form 990 filings, which are publicly accessible here: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/810....

Starvation due to war blockades, not because of lack of food; Gaza wasn’t starving before Hamas invaded.

Unlike in communist countries where famine occurs because there’s literally not enough food to go around.

No offense, but it seems you’re trolling with the way you bring up unrelated points.

> However I'm curious what you refer as "horrors" of communism.

Mass starvation and murders to start.

And why can’t they import wheat from their numerous trading partners, including China and Europe?

It’s astonishing the amount of excuses people give for the extremely corrupt, dysfunctional, and undemocratic Cuban government.

Yeah, that’s very easy to do. I don’t live in a deranged place filled with terrorists supported by a significant part of the population.

Terrorism directed at terrorists…I’m in full support.