I'm not too keen on waiting out the 170 years for the current pathologies to clear themselves out...
-Pete On Sun, 14 Oct 2012, michael gurstein wrote: > Interesting piece and I think it is a useful (if way too overgeneralized and > simplified) explanation of much of the problems in Africa... Before > colonialism it was the hereditary chiefdom structure, then colonialism and > post colonialism the hereditary structures have become re-imposed but with > totally new garbs, technology and rhetoric. > > M (currently in Dhaka... > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf > Of Dewayne Hendricks > Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2012 9:15 PM > To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net > Subject: [Dewayne-Net] The Self-Destruction of the 1 Percent > > October 13, 2012 > The Self-Destruction of the 1 Percent > By CHRYSTIA FREELAND > <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/opinion/sunday/the-self-destruction-of-th > e-1-percent.html> > > IN the early 14th century, Venice was one of the richest cities in Europe. > At the heart of its economy was the colleganza, a basic form of joint-stock > company created to finance a single trade expedition. The brilliance of the > colleganza was that it opened the economy to new entrants, allowing > risk-taking entrepreneurs to share in the financial upside with the > established businessmen who financed their merchant voyages. > > Venice's elites were the chief beneficiaries. Like all open economies, > theirs was turbulent. Today, we think of social mobility as a good thing. > But if you are on top, mobility also means competition. In 1315, when the > Venetian city-state was at the height of its economic powers, the upper > class acted to lock in its privileges, putting a formal stop to social > mobility with the publication of the Libro d'Oro, or Book of Gold, an > official register of the nobility. If you weren't on it, you couldn't join > the ruling oligarchy. > > The political shift, which had begun nearly two decades earlier, was so > striking a change that the Venetians gave it a name: La Serrata, or the > closure. It wasn't long before the political Serrata became an economic one, > too. Under the control of the oligarchs, Venice gradually cut off commercial > opportunities for new entrants. Eventually, the colleganza was banned. The > reigning elites were acting in their immediate self-interest, but in the > longer term, La Serrata was the beginning of the end for them, and for > Venetian prosperity more generally. By 1500, Venice's population was smaller > than it had been in 1330. In the 17th and 18th centuries, as the rest of > Europe grew, the city continued to shrink. > > The story of Venice's rise and fall is told by the scholars Daron Acemoglu > and James A. Robinson, in their book "Why Nations Fail: The Origins of > Power, Prosperity, and Poverty," as an illustration of their thesis that > what separates successful states from failed ones is whether their governing > institutions are inclusive or extractive. Extractive states are controlled > by ruling elites whose objective is to extract as much wealth as they can > from the rest of society. Inclusive states give everyone access to economic > opportunity; often, greater inclusiveness creates more prosperity, which > creates an incentive for ever greater inclusiveness. > > The history of the United States can be read as one such virtuous circle. > But as the story of Venice shows, virtuous circles can be broken. Elites > that have prospered from inclusive systems can be tempted to pull up the > ladder they climbed to the top. Eventually, their societies become > extractive and their economies languish. > > That was the future predicted by Karl Marx, who wrote that capitalism > contained the seeds of its own destruction. And it is the danger America > faces today, as the 1 percent pulls away from everyone else and pursues an > economic, political and social agenda that will increase that gap even > further - ultimately destroying the open system that made America rich and > allowed its 1 percent to thrive in the first place. > > You can see America's creeping Serrata in the growing social and, > especially, educational chasm between those at the top and everyone else. At > the bottom and in the middle, American society is fraying, and the children > of these struggling families are lagging the rest of the world at school. > > [snip] > > Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: <http://www.warpspeed.com/wordpress> > > > > _______________________________________________ > Futurework mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework > > _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
