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I probably didn't do a good job of linking this article to the tax farmers. Let me compare it with the other thread: The cultural explanation of the difficulty of development

WV1: That (simplified) worldview is that governments job is to get enough tax to fund government (ie fund infrastructure roads, hospitals, ect)

WV2: The (simplified) Tax Farmer worldview is that governments job is to maximize profits.

So in the case of Dalrymple take on Zimbabwe, the British gave over control of a working government to that nation - WV1 mission accomplished. It got enough tax money to fund itself but still failed due to family-cultural issues which caused them to stop funding the infrastructure.

WV2 would look at the events and say what really happened was that more profits could be made by going corrupt and not funding the infrastructure. Mission Accomplished for WV2 would be that the British don't give control over to that nation until it got enough tax money profits to make the corruption option relatively unprofitable.

To tie it to the Nobel work - to me it support WV2 since having resources or getting aid doesn't lead to more infrastructure - in fact the opposite.

I am on the fence for WV2 for modern democratic states - I think there is more going on then a pure profit motive. Maybe a symbiotic parasitism.






I think one should distinguish between “government job” (which is whatever people with power to “fire” the government expect it to do) from government officials’ personal interests (which includes but not limited to maximizing profits).

British gave over control of a working government to that nation - WV1 mission accomplished.

The real reason British resigned control was that they had no more interest in controlling Rhodesia, whether it was ready for self-government or not.
Mission Accomplished for WV2 would be that the British don't give control over to that nation until it got enough tax money profits to make the corruption option relatively unprofitable.

Corruption does not become unprofitable with increased tax revenue.
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melian
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