4 ms·
> But the people who are ruling the poor nations have a vested interest in the status quo, which is why the region is poor, Not everywhere, and not in a perfec
by mattchew 16y ago
> But the people who are ruling the poor nations have a vested interest in the status quo, which is why the region is poor,
Not everywhere, and not in a perfectly unified way, which is why Romer got genuine interest in Madagascar and apparently has a couple of other possibilities on line. It only takes one place to get started.
Note that the article closes by talking about how Romer's bigger problem is finding rich countries willing to be sponsors of the charter cities. If what Romer wants is a new Hong Kong or Singapore, this does seem like a problem, at least if he's looking for sponsors among Western democracies.
I think it would be hilarious--and not entirely implausible--if nominally communist China ended up sponsoring Romer's first free-market-enterprise-zone charter city.
> Unless this changes, theorizing about changes is fruitless. Until Paul Romer or someone else has the wherewithal to MAKE changes, it's all air.
Persuasion, argument, and communicating a vision are ways to make changes, and they sometimes work.
- stcredzero 16y agoI think it would be hilarious--and not entirely implausible--if nominally communist China ended up sponsoring Romer's first free-market-enterprise-zone charter city. India and Brazil are also good candidates. They could try out such an experiment in their own borders.
- mattchew 16y agoTrue, and I hope they do. City states are my best hope for the future (politically). They've worked before, and I think conditions might be right for them to start working again. My intuition is that it might be more politically possible for (say) India and Brazil to outmaneuver interest groups if they work outside the native country, even if they have otherwise reasonable locations inside their borders.
- stcredzero 16y agoI suspect that New York City operates much like a city-state right now.
- mattchew 16y agoI never thought of that. I can see what you mean. I'll have to think about this some more. I'm not sure I'll like it.
- stcredzero 16y agoI can see what you mean. I've been thinking along these lines when a college friend of mine warned that the NYC legal system didn't necessarily respect habeas corpus