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<blockquote data-quote="j r" data-source="post: 443503" data-attributes="member: 2161">In a broad sense, it's true that colonization doesn't pay. The over all cost of maintaining an empire is higher than the the economic benefits that a country gets from having colonies. However, the economic benefits of colonization generally go to a few people (in both the colonizer and the colony) at the expense of everyone else. Also, the benefits of colonization vary depending on the extent to which the colonization is exploitive. Those English colonies in which lots of English went to live are among the richest nations on earth (the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada), but those colonies that were primarily established to get at natural resources are not. Because those places were the English went to live in large numbers ended up benefitting from a whole set of laws and norms that are necessary for freedom and widespread wrath creation. The really important thing that Friedman says in that clip is that capitalism is a necessary but not sufficient condition. You need property rights. You need the rule of law. You need a certain level of commitment to a broadly just society.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="j r, post: 443503, member: 2161"] In a broad sense, it's true that colonization doesn't pay. The over all cost of maintaining an empire is higher than the the economic benefits that a country gets from having colonies. However, the economic benefits of colonization generally go to a few people (in both the colonizer and the colony) at the expense of everyone else. Also, the benefits of colonization vary depending on the extent to which the colonization is exploitive. Those English colonies in which lots of English went to live are among the richest nations on earth (the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada), but those colonies that were primarily established to get at natural resources are not. Because those places were the English went to live in large numbers ended up benefitting from a whole set of laws and norms that are necessary for freedom and widespread wrath creation. The really important thing that Friedman says in that clip is that capitalism is a necessary but not sufficient condition. You need property rights. You need the rule of law. You need a certain level of commitment to a broadly just society. [/QUOTE]

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