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Almost half of the economy is controlled by the IRGC: https://fortune.com/2026/03/02/iran-islamic-revolutionary-guard-irgc-business-empire-economy-us-israel-bom

• g8oz 6mo ago
  Extensive domestic economic control by security forces is also a feature of Egypt and Pakistan. America does not complain about those examples of course, because those countries bend the knee.
  • logicchains 6mo ago
    Those countries, like Iran, are also quite poor because the army siphons off so much of their resources.
    • platevoltage 6mo ago
      [flagged]
    • LtWorf 6mo ago
      And it seems that they did in fact need that army.
  • AnimalMuppet 6mo ago
    If by "bend the knee" you mean that they don't regularly chant "death to America", sure.
    • ajsnigrutin 6mo ago
      [flagged]
      • bdangubic 6mo ago
        A lot more than 1/2 the world, a lot more...
        • lucketone 6mo ago
          Currently lot if people dislike/distrust america. Which is understandable and rational thing to do. Chanting “deato xyz” is very irrational and unproductive and just bad.
          • bdangubic 6mo ago
            if I was disliked and distrusted by a lot of people I’d think long and hard about why that is vs. complaining about how that dislike/distrust is communicated
            • lucketone 6mo ago
              Do you assume that I am American and that I was complaining about people chanting? I am not; yet I prefer that my side stays rational without such chant’s (somebody has to be the responsible adult)
              • bdangubic 6mo ago
                I made no such assumptions, no
• Saline9515 6mo ago
  Which is a logical result of decades of sanctions, allowing only the insiders to profit from the country's ressources while the common man is bared from providing an alternative. Sanctions do not work and only entrench regimes, as we see in Russia, Cuba, North Korea and now Iran.
  • ajsnigrutin 6mo ago
    I've just been at a conference where some high-up guy from germany was talking about the effect of sanctions... russia used to sell wood pulp to germany, german factories would produce paper products and then sell a lot of them back to russia. Then sanctions came, no more very cheap wood pulp for the german industry, and after a year of sanctions, the russians built (i think) 4 large paper factories, so even after the sanctions end, that business is not coming back to germany.
    • nradov 6mo ago
      OK, so what? Obviously we shouldn't continue trading with enemies regardless of the economic impact.
      • Saline9515 6mo ago
        Why? If the objective is to weaken a regime, and the sanctions strengthen it, why should you help your “enemy”? The classic mistake here is to consider that dictatorships are like democracies—they aren't, and their power structure is different and more resilient to economic shocks. Even Bachar Al-Assad, who was much weaker, took 13 years to leave power. At some point, one should question if wide sanctions targeted at increasing the suffering of the civilian population are really worth it.
        • lucketone 6mo ago
          - Economic growth slows down under sanction. - removing their leverage over you is also good. Even if regime will not change, it will be weaker