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by mljoe 3129 days ago
Probably something to do with the rent seeking problem. It’s wealth tied mostly to possessing rights to exploit valuable land, not to the labor or ingenuity of people.
1 comments

this ^

Value is value -- for sure

but Value derived from luck of the draw (e.g. Norway's current citizens banking on their ancestors settling in a land rich in oil).

Frame it this way -- would Saudi Arabia be as wealthy as it is today without Oil? Do you think their social and political structure would have produced equivalent wealth as their oil companies?