Lane Vanderslice
The standard economic model of how economies work is that activities
are essentially productive. This is not a correct view of reality. The principal
difficulty is that there is economic activity that is unproductive and harmful (from
the point of view of those being harmed). This is a central feature of the economic
organization of these societies, and creates poverty. The first section of the article
discusses the concept of harm. The second section describes how societies are run
on this basic set of principles: Take and maintain control of the government and
other aspects of society, and use the power of government to obtain income. The
third section of the article describes how this system harms the common people.
Topics include corruption, misappropriation of natural resources, conflict and
other harm engendered by the struggle for control, the influence on present society
of the past operation of harmful economic systems, and discrimination as well as
other “barriers to entry.”
See Vested Interests and the Common People in Developing Countries (Final)