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If the problem is that the government is dominated by a few wealthy families and heavily-invested foreign corporations control the exports, how could it possibl
by blahedo 14y ago
If the problem is that the government is dominated by a few wealthy families and heavily-invested foreign corporations control the exports, how could it possibly be solved by creating an area that is dominated by a board of a few wealthy people and tries to attract heavy investment from foreign corporations?
This doesn't "reek of" colonialism. This is colonialism.
- gee_totes 14y agoI think the idea is that there will be a more diverse group of wealthy people to dominate the new cities, as opposed to just a few wealthy families. Quite a neo-conservative (or is it neo-liberal) idea: More freedom through more rich people dominating the under classes! Of course, some would claim that the writer of this article is just a shrill for the 1%[0] [0] http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/05/adam-davidson-parrots-disinformation-as-he-extols-rule-by-the-top-0-1.html http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/05/adam-davidson-parrots...
- viggity 14y agoI hate to be pedantic here, but I think you mean "shill" instead of "shrill". Technically what you did there is called a malapropism, where two similar sounding words are misused because the alternative wording could make sense as well. I always thought the saying was "for all intensive purposes", but the actual saying is "for all intents and purposes".
- waterlesscloud 14y agoThe idea here seems to be to transition from a system focused on extracting wealth to a system focused on creating wealth. This is definitely something that will have to happen in poor nations exploited by internal and/or external sources, there's no question about it. Whether or not this particular plan can actually succeed at making the transition is certainly up for debate, but the goals it sets seem to pretty clearly be good ones.
- blahedo 14y agoWell the goals are good, but if you buy into the whole "noble savage" thing, the goals of a lot of the first-round colonialists weren't so bad either. I think the distinction between extracting vs creating wealth is a narrow one, when the mechanism for creating wealth is essentially mining the local native population for its labour rather than its natural resources---and extracting the created wealth. I mean, if you think colonialism has a net-positive effect on the natives, you would not be alone, and there are certainly some positive effects (which may or may not outweigh the many negative effects). But denying that the OP proposal is a form of colonialism seems disingenuous at best. If you're going to promote it as a good thing, you might as well embrace it.
- quadhome 14y agoI think the idea is that you can't mine someone for skilled labour.
- Daniel_Newby 14y ago> ... how could it possibly be solved by creating an area that is dominated by a board of a few wealthy people ... Some wealthy people want to tax a million prosperous citizens, not rule a million peasants. Not only do you get richer that way, it is safer.