Yeah. I had been thinking of that. There should probably be a third term Z that has some sort of inverse proportionality relationship to y that represents cartels/warlords/etc that fill the power vacuum of a very low y situation. This would also cause x to be very high. (eg: Somalia)
Or -y is what happens when you don't have any y and so its an absolute value of y modified by some vector function v as to which sections of public life y (or the absolute value thereof) extends into...
For some metaphor m that is extended beyond a limit l, it becomes increasingly r, ridiculous. :)