269 sats \ 1 reply \ @Undisciplined OP 7 Oct \ parent \ on: Bitcoin, The IMF, and El Salvador bitcoin
I think that's largely correct. The empire will want to allow the economies it's exploiting to grow wealthier, though, as long as that's translating into greater ability to enrich the center. They may engage in win-win outcomes, but they'll never do something that benefits the recipient at the expense of the empire.
There's also an interesting propaganda angle where many of the people who implement IMF policies are drinking their own Kool-Aid. It's much easier to run a scam when the people on the ground believe in what they're doing.
yes, they used to do this also a a means to enlarge the consumer base, though in global south countries, that was usually only a thin layer of the local rich, who consider themselves "Westerners". If local governments try to do things that benefit the larger parts of the population, this is seen as detrimental to imperial interests (as it will inevitably raise the price of work), and the leaders will be couped, as happened more often than you can count.
And yeah, the propaganda angle is real and visible, though it comes with different levels of bribery. there is the indirect bribery of the local well-off, wo will sincerely simp for empire (I've met plenty), though the higher-up bribery is more open and clear. They're openly being paid for their subservience, and allowed to engage in local corruption to amass wealth from local sources unimpeded (like Zelensky, now a literal billionaire, or Uribe in Colombia, not a billionaire - he didn't quite slaughter all his people, or Fukuyama, or the Emirs, Sheikhs and Kings in West Asian comprador regimes)
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