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That’s how the ruling class always tended to operate. History is full of examples where the peasants were starving and the rulers spent a lot of money on squash
by Ididntdothis 7y ago
That’s how the ruling class always tended to operate. History is full of examples where the peasants were starving and the rulers spent a lot of money on squashing insurgencies instead of just feeding the people. If you only care about your profit this may make sense.
- munificent 7y agoIf crushing an insurgency costs X$, feeding the people costs Y$, and X$ < Y$, then the optimal choice according to free market capitalism and rational actor economic theory is to crush the insurgency.
- Guest42 7y agoI don't think the analysis gets completed before the decision gets made.
- ceejayoz 7y agoMake that calculation too many times, though, and the guillotines start to come out.
- Ididntdothis 7y agoIt’s a very fine line but you can keep this going for a long time.
- mumblemumble 7y agoAs a heuristic (as in a psychological shortcut, not necessarily a generally-correct rule of thumb), I'm guessing one just assumes that it's always less expensive in the long run to crush the insurgency. Because you assume that's a one time expense, whereas feeding the people requires accepting permanently higher operating costs.
- saagarjha 7y agoInsurgencies often tend to make people mad at you, which is fairly hard to value. Make enough people mad and soon you won't be making any money.
- eli_gottlieb 7y agoYeah, but much of the time X > Y, and the ruling class chooses "crush workers" anyway. One of the big reasons we call them the ruling class is because they consistently choose power over wealth.
- marcosdumay 7y agoIt's more of a "give a man a fish / teach how to fish" problem. If you fight an insurgency today, there will be a worse one tomorrow for you to fight. But if you fix your economy, you'll have a healthier economy tomorrow to tax or sell into. But well, as you said, it costs less today. Tomorrow you can always flee the country or sell your stocks before the shit hits the fan.