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Every rich nation on earth became rich through exploitation and genocide.
by MrRiddle 5y ago
Every rich nation on earth became rich through exploitation and genocide.
- eesmith 5y agoProbably "and/or". Iceland has one of the highest GDPs per capita (in the top 12 says https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomi... ) and high median wealth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_per_adult#By_country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_pe... ). That was through exploitation (power generation and fishing), but not genocide.
- 6d6b73 5y agoEvery country on the planet is a byproduct of exploitation and genocide. Some countries where just "better" at it.
- morceauxdebois 5y agoWho did Estonia exploit to get rich?
- thriftwy 5y agoThe core EU countries?
- adventured 5y agoYou're merely describing the history of nearly all nations (at one point or another), which doesn't properly explain why some nations develop to a radical degree when it comes to the formation of industry, wealth, high productivity, innovation, technology, etc. Vietnam - as one prominent example - has had repeated bouts of internal exploitation and genocide throughout its history, including in the post Vietnam War era by the ruling CPV dictatorship. That treatment didn't make them richer or more developed, the opposite did: liberalized markets, increased protections for property rights, global trade, manufacturing, paid labor with rapidly increasing wages, rapidly increasing productivity, and so on. The approach of exploitation and genocide destroyed potential and held them back, as it similarly did to numerous other Communist nations. You have to pretend that all worker wages are inherently exploitation (that the business to worker relationship is always structured on worker exploitation), to believe that every rich nation primarily got there via exploitation.
- BobbyJo 5y agoAllowing people to sell their labor, and allowing other people to buy that labor, is inherently exploitive /s
- Kinrany 5y ago> You have to pretend that all worker wages are inherently exploitation (that the business to worker relationship is always structured on worker exploitation), to believe that every rich nation primarily got there via exploitation. Merely that exploitation is more common than a fair trade where both parties can afford to walk away. How often is it historically that a person can quit on the spot without fear of becoming homeless? A quick search finds this article that suggests that in US today 40% of people have negative net worth: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/02/the-costs-of-inequality-when-a-fair-shake-isnt/ https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/02/the-costs-of-... Exploitation is not a good source of wealth for the country, of course. For people working minimum wage jobs their time would be more efficiently spent on education. But it's a great way to accumulate wealth that exists anyway.
- walkhour 5y agoChina has committed a genocide over the Uighurs and has also peacefully brought hundreds of millions out of poverty in the last fifty years. These two events are unrelated. Every nation has committed exploitation and genocide but that that is the cause of their wealth is a stretch. Most wealth is generated peacefully.
- simulate-me 5y agoYes, if anything the causality is reversed. Wealth enables a country to exploit others, not the other way around.
- KoftaBob 5y agoWell sure, the question is how were they able to out-exploit and out-genocide the rest of the world.