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179 sats \ 1 reply \ @Undisciplined 24 May \ on: German finance minister pushes global minimum tax econ
I hadn't made this connection until reading this post, but the EU is undoing the primary factor that drove Europe's wealth creation in the first place: political fragmentation.
One of the leading hypotheses for why Europe kicked off The Great Divergence is that there were many competing nations and rulers. That meant there were many jurisdictions competing with each other and they had to compete for population and trade.
Essentially, having nearby rivals to flee to meant there was a much stricter cap on rent seeking by the rulers than elsewhere in the world.
exactly. That is also what I always say to those who are now demanding prohibitive tariffs in the face of China. In the long term you can only be successful if you assert yourself in open markets in the face of tough competition and in this way identify your own comparative advantages - everything else always fails
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