From: Mike Linksvayer (ml@gondwanaland.com)
Date: Sun Jun 23 2002 - 22:43:07 MDT
On Sun, 2002-06-23 at 17:32, Spudboy100@aol.com wrote:
> Not energy, but the lack of building cisterns and water storage tanks for the
> drought years. The lack of using condoms, promoting hiv. Its government, not
> technology.
The problem is government, but not mere bad planning as might be read
into the above. The problem is systematic robbery by the military,
dictator of the moment and his family, friends and allied ethnic
groups. All aided, abetted and supported by "aid" from western
governments with on a huge (and well derserved) guilt trip, a Marxian
understanding of economics and a selfish desire to protect spheres of
influence and dole out preferential favors to connected local (western)
firms.
The recently deceased Peter Bauer had it right all along. Had he been
listened to there would hardly be a poor nation on earth (or our
definition of "poor" would be quite different).
I recently read (I believe in a Bauer obituary, though I can't find it
now) a claim that forty (fifty?) years ago Zambia had a per capita GDP
of around $600. Current GDP per capita is still around the same amount
(both in current dollars). Had the "aid" received by Zambia over the
last several decades been invested and obtained an 8% return the per
capita income would be $20k. Supposedly. I'm not sure how these
figures were arrived at, though even if they're pretty far off they
paint a picture of incredible waste and an incredible amount of
completely avoidable human suffering.
South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore (and to a lesser extent many other
Asian countries) provide some evidence that $20k/person income is
possible over a half century or less starting from utter poverty (all
were poorer than the average African country c. 1950 I believe).
The most extropic thing we can do in Africa and other desperately poor
regions IMO is to promote a free market and rule of law. Technology and
education aid may be helpful (certainly not as harmful as food and
military aid and other industrial policy/political instruments typical
of "aid" so far), but any benefits will be severely muted as dictators
rob the fruit of any productivity increase before it even happens.
-- Mike Linksvayer http://gondwanaland.com/ml recommends http://bitzi.com http://erights.org http://ij.org http://stopthedrugwar.org
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