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Re: A recent program on NPR
Tom Brosz — (archived)

<He points out that "oil . . . has been a curse" when it comes to establishing democracy, and that the only oil-rich country that has a functioning democracy is Norway. All the rest, he says, are so rich that their leaders feel no pressure to do the difficult jobs required to modernize a nation: establish a working market economy, a just and impartial court system, good schools and opportunities for youth, nurture a middle class, and so forth. He says these countries wind up as feudal states with a lot of money.

That's a remarkable insight. I'd never thought of that before. Kind of like the self-reliance handicaps some kids have when they have inherited a lot of wealth.*

This will take a very long time, between 5 years and a decade.



I hope we have the attention span to do this. It's on our plate now whether we want it or not.



You said a mouthful. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what attention span America is capable of mustering in our modern age. Cripes, everyone was having a cow when the war went on an extra week. We were in Japan for seven years before we turned the nation back over to them. Do we still have the people in Washington who can do this kind of thing?

*Back off, folks. It still doesn't make a death tax a good idea.

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