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Notes -
Self-determination counts for a lot. People getting to rule themselves makes people happier. No taxation without representation, after all.
I think the idea of "White man's burden" could've been true, the Brits could've altruistically given good government and institutions to weaker peoples and raised their quality of life. In practice, there was a lot of resource extraction with minimal effort to raise the quality of life for the masses.
I think decolonization was also handled horribly though. I think ideally it would've been a longer process with a slow but consistent withdrawal as institutions are built up and colonial leadership trains their successors as they hand off the reigns. But I'm sure it was a tricky situation when the locals look around, see that their poor and the whites are rich even though they live on the same sort of land, and they know for a fact that there's been a decent amount of exploitation going on, so they not unreasonably conclude that exploitation was 100% of the reason their lives sucked and want the whites out of their ASAP.
I think what I’m really getting at is an HBD argument. Africa never developed for Garret Jones style low average IQ making it difficult to build state capacity. And some sort of colonial aristocracy was better and providing functional government - even if it wasn’t Democracy.
It’s seems like the old trope
White people move in - gentrification
White people leave - white flight and we don’t have resources. White people stay resource extraction. White people leave no development. It seems like the only constant is a poorer dysfunctional underclass regardless of which policy choices are made. Now if colonials want resource extraction they are still building railroads, infrastructure, and enough state capacity to make sure militias aren’t raiding their mines.
People on the left would cite like “Why Nations Failed” and if we just did these policy rules everything would work out. But it’s feeling a lot more like Garret Jones world where some areas just always fail.
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