mentalblog.com comments:
It has amazed me for years that after centuries of gold galleons, intercontinental slave trade and colonial empires, the greatest transfer of wealth in all of history has occurred in just the last 2 or 3 decades.
The industrialized world and third world countries alike have transferred large parts of their net worth to the oil producers - and continue to do so, and faster than ever. If the Arabs were mind-bogglingly wealthy when oil was $25 a barrel, how much richer are they becoming at $125? Has YOUR income risen 5-fold in the last few years??? And somehow, they STILL manage to present a face of poverty, weakness and being oppressed by the usual devils, the USA and Israel, and sometimes UK, as well. Guess who REALLY controls the media... Guess who is REALLY trying to take over the world...
If the galleons of gold made a country rich, then Spain would have been rich and Britain poor. The oil producing countries are in fact quite poor, almost none of their income is invested in their own development. It is all invested in the West, and it is those Western economies that will in fact continue to grow, while the oil producing countries, with a few exceptions like the tiny city-states around the gulf, will remain poor.
This is not a universal statement. Russia is investing in infrastructure, as are the asserted Stans, like Kazakhstan. Dubai is modern miracle, Meanwhile there are major dislocation in America and abroad results of with is hard to imagine or predict.
In former times, colonial empires plundered lands they controlled and took all the gold and slaves they wanted. This made them wealthy. Armies were sent to occupied lands to take whatever taxes they could grab and bring it home. All capital went to the capitol.
In modern times, something similar is done via business activities and is, in fact, a large factor in the animosity that so many people feel towards the USA.
If "[t]he oil producing countries are in fact quite poor", perhaps we should be sending financial aid to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc???
The income of the oil producers is simply mind-boggling and challenges comprehension. That they mis-distribute that wealth and leave hundreds of millions of Arabs barefoot and uneducated is a separate matter. Similarly, their re-investment of petro-wealth outside of their own societies doesn't make the oil producers poor.
The point remains: the greatest transfer of wealth in all of history has occurred in recent decades and is ACCELERATING WILDLY now. Within a year, Arab oil producers will be able to buy up entire major US corporations with oil revenue they earn in less time that it will take their lawyers to draw up the contracts. This is a point of major concern.
The other point is also of concern. Who really controls the banks, the media, everything????
Commenting by HaloScan
