That’s One Way to Put It
According to “Why Nations Fail,” a book cited by Tom Friedman in his New York Times column today, egalitarian institutions are the key to successful nations, “extractive economic and political institutions” lead to failed ones.
I have no issue with the authors’ observations and conclusions — after all, they’re Tenured Ivy League Professors! — just their rather antiseptic (not to say amoral) language.
So, instead of “extract,” I might have said “steal”; instead of “concentrate power” I would have said “bribe and corrupt.”
And instead of “extractive economic institution?”
Try, “modern-day Wall Street.”
Just a small difference in semantics . . .
P.S.: And I always thought an “extractive economic institution” was a gold mining company.
