I got to listen to a lot of NPR driving to and from Barron WI today. Belgium, the location of NATO HQ the head of the European Union is a "failed state".
Why?
Well, you can go read the whole sorry tale, but basically:
- Socialism
- Political patronage and corruption
- Fractionalism -- especially in law enforcement
But that masks deeper structural problems with Belgium’s taxation. The taxes (including social security) on labor have been so high that they encouraged evasion and the development of a sizeable black economy.
Oddly, when you have a corrupt socialist government, you get a huge number of poor who depend on the government, and a small number of rich who get special favors (like they pay their local version of Hildebeast $250K a shot to come talk to them), and the folks that try to work hard keep their noses clean get screwed. I sure hope that sounds familiar!
I wonder what other "failed states" we could identify? The "Dictator Summit" in Cuba seemed to be going swimmingly today -- I'm guessing the limp wristed dictator isn't faring all that well.
'via Blog this'
No comments:
Post a Comment