[45] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: LIVING WAGE SIT-IN AT HARVARD (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Christopher D. Beland)
Thu Apr 19 17:44:09 2001
Message-Id: <200104192143.RAA30042@Press-Your-Luck.mit.edu>
To: "Sourav K. Mandal" <Sourav.Mandal@ikaran.com>
cc: mit-talk@MIT.EDU
In-reply-to: The events that comprise the history of the universe.
Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2001 17:43:43 -0400
From: "Christopher D. Beland" <beland@MIT.EDU>
> Do you really think that is plausible? Wealth grows, instead of
> remaining static, because economic efficiencies get exploited. How
> can this happen without the freedom to do so? Conversely, I don't
> see the causal link from wealth to freedom.
I see one obvious potential linkage. Private business interests are
disproportionately attracted to resource-rich countries, and thus have
disproportionately greater influence on their governments. Naturally,
they will lobby for policies which interfere the least with their
operations. Because these countries are naturally resource-rich, they
acheive greater "wealth" even though the libertarian policies did
nothing to help. At least, it's a plausible counterexample.
But economic wealth alone is not necessarily a good measure of how
enjoyable it is to live in a given country, especially if you're poor.
-B.
