Why does most of Africa stay poor while other parts of the world prosper?
People blame things like climate, the history of colonialism, racism, etc.
But I say Senegalese businesswoman Magatte Wade gives the right explanation: too many rules.
âOnce you hire someone, good luck getting rid of them for any reason,â Wade complains. Her government must approve every firing.
âThen the tax code is so complicated ... worth at least two or three truckloads of paper.â
Wade started a lip balm company. Some of her ingredients are not made in Senegal, so she imports them. To âprotectâ Senegalese manufacturers, the government makes importing ingredients expensive.
âSome have a 70 percent import tariff on them!â she says.
President Donald Trump now threatens similar taxes on imports from China.
In Africa, people sometimes escape such taxes by paying bribes. We hear a lot about African corruption.
âPeople complain about corruption as if corruption is a root problem,â says Wade. âI say no. Corruption is a natural consequence of stupid, senseless, idiot laws.â
She says there would be just as much corruption in the U.S. if taxes and regulations here made it as difficult to do business as Senegal does.
âThe only way to fix corruption is to simplify,â advises Wade.
Wadeâs business has survived because she was fortunate enough to find a helpful bureaucrat who pointed out a loophole.
âI went to see the head of customs, and we started looking together,â recounts Wade.â Looking through the volumes of crushing regulations, they âfound a clause in one of the binders saying if youâre exporting 80 percent of your products, and if youâve been in business for two years, you can ask for an exemption.â
Most people are âcluelessâ about these obstacles, she says, especially those in academia, Hollywood and the news media. âThey have such a strong anti-capitalism bias.â
To raise awareness about why economic freedom creates prosperity but regulation prevents it, Wade and the Foundation for Economic Education made a documentary titled âMade in Mekhe.â
In it, she asks: âWhy is it that a couple decades ago, China was at the same level as most African countries? Countries like Singapore made it. Hong Kong made it. Even a place like Dubai â bare land of desert sand â all of a sudden, Dubai (is) one of the financial centers of the world! Youâre like, what? What happened here?â
She says booming places like those understood that they wouldnât create prosperity unless they made it easy for business to operate.
But international aid organizations have a different solution. Wade says they often make Africaâs problems worse by adding rules. The U.N.âs âSustainable Developmentâ goals include things like âinclusive and equitable quality education,â âclimate changeâ and âgender equality.â
âWe have chains around our necks! No one is seeing it. Then they want to come talk to me about inequality! We need greater economic freedom!â
Governments send $50 billion a year to Africa, and businesses offer Africa free goods.
TOMS Shoes promotes itself by sending a pair of shoes to Africa for every pair you buy.
Wade says: âI know it came from a good place. I get it. But can you just think further down the road?â
She points out that a result of TOMS âcharityâ is that African shoemakers go out of business. âYou canât compete with free!â
But donation promotion has become trendy among Western businesses, says Wade. âNow youâre seeing it with tampons, seeing it with soap, with everything!â
Africa becomes dependent instead of self-sustaining. It would be better, says Wade, if Westerners simply encouraged African governments to stop strangling their own entrepreneurs.
âIf I have a job then, guess what? My malnutrition problem goes poof! Even access to clean water goes poof,â says Wade. Instead, âthe business climate sucks so much that people like me canât do that work of creating companies and jobs.â
If the Gestapo can get away with shooting unarmed Americans in the back today, what is to stop the Gestapo from torturing Americans?
You don't need to pay the Gestapo $30,000 a year or $100,000 per year to torture when they will do it for free.
There is no rule of law now.
The government can do anything they want and Americans don't care.
Do you see any protests?
Libertarian
boosted
When supporting drug decriminalization, libertarians are correct. When they support drug legalization, they are no longer libertarians.
Legalization is taxation and control of who is allowed to possess, grow, buy or sell, in what quantities, under what conditions, and in what areas or locations, as well as who cannot use, buy, sell or grow such substances- in other words, a complete tyranny over your liberty.
Acceptance of taxation alone is enough to destroy the NAP. In the case of a circumstance where you make the trade-off: I want to live life as a libertarian, but I really, just want to smoke weed more- so I will accept taxation and legalization, because the NAP means zilch to me.
That is why you should be careful about marijuana libertarians.. Find out first if they are willing to jettison the NAP for the sake of weed.
The right and only answer is to remain true to libertarianism, and defend your right to smoke and grow without government control or taxation.
After you do that, then you can fight for other ways to destroy taxation, and restore private property rights.
That is when you have made the real conversion. When liberty matters more.
Libertarian
boosted
@dcjogger
Only in the Minds of LIBERTARIANS..........LOL.........
Libertarian
boosted
It is easier to be a slave than to be free. The newer breed of Americans want the easy life instead of the free one. (and I use "newer breed" very loosely.) @dcjogger
Libertarian
boosted
The elites have turned everyone into liars, hypocrites, cowards, or criminals.
Obeying the law is easy when only murder and theft is illegal, but no one respects the law when everything is illegal.
Everyone has a breaking point.
Americans might support a decree that requires everyone to get a tattoo, but why is this the government's business?
What do you do if cohabitation is illegal, but married couples are taxed at a higher rate?
Why get a driver license when you must give the government your fingerprints?
The constitution protects the right to own a gun, but what if guns are illegal?
What do you do if you don't want insurance, but you are legally required to buy insurance?
What do you do if watering your lawn is illegal, but not watering your grass is also a crime?
Why obey the law if the government doesn't?
Looks like the elites have won everything. The globalists got bailouts, turned the US into a police state, increased the debt, and have launched endless wars and Americans walk around like zombies thinking everything is just fine.
Americans think that they have perfect safety and believe tyranny only applies to others.
Not only have Commies lost their right to protest, but you did, too.
Not only have Nazis lost their right to own a gun, but you did, too.
Not only do drunk-drivers and illegal aliens need to go through checkpoints, but you do, too.
Not only can junkies have their property forfeited, but you can, too.
Not only Muslims can be groped by the TSA, be indefinitely detained without trial, be extra-judicially assassinated, and be wiretapped by the NSA, but you can, too.
One bad thing about the US collapse is the waiting for this nightmare to end.
The USA gets worse by the minute.
What can you do now? Vote?
Americans stab themselves in their eyes with icepicks and then become outraged that icepicks are not illegal.
When will the stock market crash?
Why can't the debt be paid down?
Why doesn't the US default on the debt?
Why can't smoking laws be repealed?
Why aren't the wars ended?
Why don't Americans get into the streets and break windows?
Why don't Americans fire on police stations?
Why don't states secede?
You can either pay taxes that fund wars, debt, or tyranny or dropout and break the law by not paying taxes.
Do Americans feel like guilty cowards now?
What are Americans waiting for? Do you think tomorrow will be better?
Americans are so enslaved today that they scream the police state should be used instead of restoring the Bill of Rights.
- Libertarian
- https://neinchan.com/pol/
Joined May 2019
