4 ms·

Yep. Honest business dealings such as paying your debts, honoring contracts, enforcing the law, and not being a total unpredictable dick are what, historically

Yep. Honest business dealings such as paying your debts, honoring contracts, enforcing the law, and not being a total unpredictable dick are what, historically, have made nations great. Corrupt leadership can destroy that trust and hamstring an economy for decades, even centuries.

la_barba 7y ago
Its hard to say what makes nations great. The sovereign will always honor their commitments, until they don't :) Because how far back are we willing to go? Most states/kingdoms in Europe have always been at war and there is a long history of reneging under economic strain. (especially wars)
- metafunctor 7y ago
  When an entity does not honour their commitments, the money starts going to another entity that appears more trustworthy. I'm not sure what kind of timelines you have in mind, but the above is clear if you look at the past few hundred of years of European history. Wars, in particular, have been funded by honoured business commitments.
  - la_barba 7y ago
    >When an entity does not honour their commitments, the money starts going to another entity that appears more trustworthy. Sure, but when in crises, people heavily favor the short term gains of reneging or violating an agreement over the loss of potential future opportunities. Also using your logic, Chinese companies appear to be quite a bit trustworthy since businesses and individuals continue to do repeat business in China, continue to open up new businesses in China/sign new contracts etc, etc, etc. As you can imagine, the real-world is a lot more complex. >I'm not sure what kind of timelines you have in mind, but the above is clear if you look at the past few hundred of years of European history. Wars, in particular, have been funded by honoured business commitments. I'm talking about things like the confiscation of wealth/property, as happened under Edward I or Phillip IV, or the Stuart period (where the crown sold off lands to fund wars, and did not honor agreements for borrowed funds) for e.g. Certainly nation states with their constitutions and laws have helped stem this unilateral 'dictatorial' approach to governance, but I think that its a bit too early to say that nation states will always be rational actors. Certainly the US, for e.g. has violated a lot of treaties that were signed with the native americans.
zeristor 7y ago
Although not Ericsson, Bofors had developed some bad habits to help sales. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bofors#Bofors_gun_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bofors#Bofors_gun_scandal

la_barba 7y ago

Its hard to say what makes nations great. The sovereign will always honor their commitments, until they don't :) Because how far back are we willing to go? Most states/kingdoms in Europe have always been at war and there is a long history of reneging under economic strain. (especially wars)

metafunctor 7y ago
When an entity does not honour their commitments, the money starts going to another entity that appears more trustworthy. I'm not sure what kind of timelines you have in mind, but the above is clear if you look at the past few hundred of years of European history. Wars, in particular, have been funded by honoured business commitments.
- la_barba 7y ago
  >When an entity does not honour their commitments, the money starts going to another entity that appears more trustworthy. Sure, but when in crises, people heavily favor the short term gains of reneging or violating an agreement over the loss of potential future opportunities. Also using your logic, Chinese companies appear to be quite a bit trustworthy since businesses and individuals continue to do repeat business in China, continue to open up new businesses in China/sign new contracts etc, etc, etc. As you can imagine, the real-world is a lot more complex. >I'm not sure what kind of timelines you have in mind, but the above is clear if you look at the past few hundred of years of European history. Wars, in particular, have been funded by honoured business commitments. I'm talking about things like the confiscation of wealth/property, as happened under Edward I or Phillip IV, or the Stuart period (where the crown sold off lands to fund wars, and did not honor agreements for borrowed funds) for e.g. Certainly nation states with their constitutions and laws have helped stem this unilateral 'dictatorial' approach to governance, but I think that its a bit too early to say that nation states will always be rational actors. Certainly the US, for e.g. has violated a lot of treaties that were signed with the native americans.

zeristor 7y ago

Although not Ericsson, Bofors had developed some bad habits to help sales. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bofors#Bofors_gun_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bofors#Bofors_gun_scandal