4 ms·

I was born in Myanmar and grew up there for more than two decades. The impact of economic sanctions are felt not by the ruling class (the military generals), bu

I was born in Myanmar and grew up there for more than two decades. The impact of economic sanctions are felt not by the ruling class (the military generals), but by the average citizen. Looking back, I firmly believe that sanctions simply deteriorates the human capital and resource (and thus the potential to spur any progressive change) rather than creating any sort of difficulty for the military. Because of the sanctions, there's always constant emigration and drained my country of a lot of intelligent and hard working people. We are still suffering from that and the current democratically elected government can't easily find competent people to help rebuild the country...

astronautjones 8y ago
they are myopic if not nefarious
dsfyu404ed 8y ago
Gutting the lower classes is how you punish the ruling class. Ruling class A wants to make ruling class B hurt so they hurt the people from whom ruling class B derives its wealth. Sucks but it's how things work.
- athenot 8y ago
  That only works if ruling class B actually cares. The traditional line of thinking is to spur revolt but the power imbalance is now a lot stronger than, e.g. 1789 France.
  - dsfyu404ed 8y ago
    The upper classes don't need to be deposed via revolt. Diminishing their wealth and influence to the point where they can no longer do whatever it was that pissed you off in the first place is good enough. For example, if nobody was buying Saudi oil they wouldn't have the money to spend fighting a war in Yemen.
- AsyncAwait 8y ago
  > Gutting the lower classes is how you punish the ruling class. Nah, that rarely works and is usually a very slow and painful process, often causing more suffering for the lower class than the crimes the sanctions are supposedly being imposed for.
- LifeLiverTransp 8y ago
  And that would all make sense- if the ruling class would need the ruled over class. But with ressources as main economy- not a chance.
deleted 8y ago
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astronautjones 8y ago

they are myopic if not nefarious

dsfyu404ed 8y ago

Gutting the lower classes is how you punish the ruling class. Ruling class A wants to make ruling class B hurt so they hurt the people from whom ruling class B derives its wealth. Sucks but it's how things work.

athenot 8y ago
That only works if ruling class B actually cares. The traditional line of thinking is to spur revolt but the power imbalance is now a lot stronger than, e.g. 1789 France.
- dsfyu404ed 8y ago
  The upper classes don't need to be deposed via revolt. Diminishing their wealth and influence to the point where they can no longer do whatever it was that pissed you off in the first place is good enough. For example, if nobody was buying Saudi oil they wouldn't have the money to spend fighting a war in Yemen.
AsyncAwait 8y ago
> Gutting the lower classes is how you punish the ruling class. Nah, that rarely works and is usually a very slow and painful process, often causing more suffering for the lower class than the crimes the sanctions are supposedly being imposed for.
LifeLiverTransp 8y ago
And that would all make sense- if the ruling class would need the ruled over class. But with ressources as main economy- not a chance.

deleted 8y ago

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