Why? I think there's a definite argument to be made that a large part of the West's foundation of economic power is rooted in a history of colonialism and global oppression.
Yip, they sure stole a lot of stuff - as of course did the Mongols and the Aztecs who are now dirt poor. In addition, the Ventians and Swiss never colonised anyone and are/were dripping cash.
But your comment is already a lot more nuanced than the OP's lazy clichéd statements.
A hell of a lot of their wealth also came from, amongst other things:
- individual rights - e,g, Magna caerta - no theft involved
- invention of limited liability corporations
- cadastas and private property rights (no theft involved)
- common law based on precedent (no theft involved)
- investment in mechanised warfare (to keep what they made and stole, see Mongols above)
- etc. etc.
Once only has to compare Singapore (colonised by British and Japanese) with Ghana since independence in the 1960s. Singapore has no water, no resources, no power, is surrounded by hostile neighbours, but is absolutely loaded. Ghana is resource rich and dirt poor.
You can decide for yourself who implemented the list above and who did not. You can also guess who is going to keep digging the hole they are in.
But I guess in certain progressive circles, "they stole it" passes for a rigourous analysis. [ And they get the bonus of claiming the moral high ground of being the perpetual victim ].
It has been noticed that resource rich countries in Africa actually do worse on average than those without. There's a lot of theories as to why: a common one is that it leads to brittle economies with all their eggs in one basket. If your country is rich in emeralds let's say, it doesn't take the entire countries population to mine enough to sell, so what does everyone else do when the whole economy is built around emerald mining? This leads to higher unemployment that's been seen in the mineral rich African states. It also means the economy is very sensitive to the market of the few goods they are rich in.
In essence: it is the effect of the entire European world coming in, taking whatever they want, and then absolutely ensuring that independence would be doomed to fail. These economies fail because they're not modern. If Europe wanted Africa to succeed post-colonialisn: it could have helped train people, build infrastructure, etc. Instead they secured rights for foreign companies to continue the work of imperialism even today.
Yip, they sure stole a lot of stuff - as of course did the Mongols and the Aztecs who are now dirt poor. In addition, the Ventians and Swiss never colonised anyone and are/were dripping cash.
But your comment is already a lot more nuanced than the OP's lazy clichéd statements.
A hell of a lot of their wealth also came from, amongst other things:
- individual rights - e,g, Magna caerta - no theft involved
- invention of limited liability corporations
- cadastas and private property rights (no theft involved)
- common law based on precedent (no theft involved)
- investment in mechanised warfare (to keep what they made and stole, see Mongols above)
- etc. etc.
Once only has to compare Singapore (colonised by British and Japanese) with Ghana since independence in the 1960s. Singapore has no water, no resources, no power, is surrounded by hostile neighbours, but is absolutely loaded. Ghana is resource rich and dirt poor.
You can decide for yourself who implemented the list above and who did not. You can also guess who is going to keep digging the hole they are in.
But I guess in certain progressive circles, "they stole it" passes for a rigourous analysis. [ And they get the bonus of claiming the moral high ground of being the perpetual victim ].
The OP should read Hernando de Soto instead.