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There is such a thing as the "resource curse". That is, if a country is rich with exploitable resources, the political economy will tend towards infighting over

There is such a thing as the "resource curse". That is, if a country is rich with exploitable resources, the political economy will tend towards infighting over who controls the resources. This is akin to a zero sum game, instead of creating an inclusive system where innovators can profit from their creating. "Why Nations Fail" is a great book that goes over this.

dpc59 10y ago
It's called dutch disease. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease
- unclenoriega 10y ago
  More specifically, it's called a "resource curse". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse
dnautics 10y ago
Is there evidence that Venezuela collapsed due to infighting? Is there evidence that the us (which is resource rich) is going to collapse due to infighting over resources?
- cossatot 10y ago
  I believe that the resource curse mostly applies to economies that are very poorly diversified and have a GDP based largely on exports of relatively raw materials. The U.S. Has an extremely diverse economy with a large base in services and domestic consumption, even though we export lots of commodity materials and agricultural products. Canada (and in a smaller scale, Alaska and Louisiana) are better examples of developed economies with relatively good governance but an overreliance on resources and under-developed services. Maybe Australia/NZ too? Venezuela seems to have had major problems with price controls as well as resource production (the federal oil company became staffed with under qualified people due to political patronage and even before the oil crash, production and efficiency dropped dramatically compared to Colombia's which is similar in scale, culture and geology but better run). I don't know the contribution of infighting (in a Gang of Four sense, obviously there were contentious elections) but it's at least not the only factor.
- zorked 10y ago
  There are plenty of exceptions to the "resource curse": Canada, Norway, Brunei. There is, however, a lot of infighting in Venezuela.
  - dnautics 10y ago
    The existence of general infighting and there being a collapse does not mean that infighting (much less, infighting over resources) precipitated the collapse. I think if you examine the history of the collapse, it has almost nothing to do with political infighting.

dpc59 10y ago

It's called dutch disease. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease

unclenoriega 10y ago
More specifically, it's called a "resource curse". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse

dnautics 10y ago

Is there evidence that Venezuela collapsed due to infighting? Is there evidence that the us (which is resource rich) is going to collapse due to infighting over resources?

cossatot 10y ago
I believe that the resource curse mostly applies to economies that are very poorly diversified and have a GDP based largely on exports of relatively raw materials. The U.S. Has an extremely diverse economy with a large base in services and domestic consumption, even though we export lots of commodity materials and agricultural products. Canada (and in a smaller scale, Alaska and Louisiana) are better examples of developed economies with relatively good governance but an overreliance on resources and under-developed services. Maybe Australia/NZ too? Venezuela seems to have had major problems with price controls as well as resource production (the federal oil company became staffed with under qualified people due to political patronage and even before the oil crash, production and efficiency dropped dramatically compared to Colombia's which is similar in scale, culture and geology but better run). I don't know the contribution of infighting (in a Gang of Four sense, obviously there were contentious elections) but it's at least not the only factor.
zorked 10y ago
There are plenty of exceptions to the "resource curse": Canada, Norway, Brunei. There is, however, a lot of infighting in Venezuela.
- dnautics 10y ago
  The existence of general infighting and there being a collapse does not mean that infighting (much less, infighting over resources) precipitated the collapse. I think if you examine the history of the collapse, it has almost nothing to do with political infighting.