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VoiceOfRa comments on Taking Effective Altruism Seriously - Less Wrong Discussion
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I think that it's worth being more explicit in your critique here.
The OP suggests that colonization is in fact a proven way to turn poor countries into productive ones. But in fact, it does the opposite. Several parts of Africa were at or above average productivity before colonization¹, and well below after; and this pattern has happened at varied enough places and times to be considered a general rule. The examples of successful transitions from poor countries to rich ones—such as South Korea—do not involve colonization.
¹Note that I'm considering the triangular trade as a form of colonization; even if it didn't involve proconsuls, it involved an external actor explicitly fomenting a hierarchical and extractive social order.
Evidence? Seriously what on earth are you talking about?
It would be nice if you'd avoid downvoting people just because you disagree with them, yeah?
Colonialism was really big, so it's hard to describe with sufficient detail all the things it messed up, but here is a start for you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_Africa#Colonial_era
Your claim wasn't about what colonialism did or didn't mess up, it was about the state of Africa before colonialism.
No, my claim was about what colonialism messed up. However, by describing what colonialism messed up, my link also necessarily describes a bit of what Africa was like before colonialism, so I don't understand your complaint anyways.
If you'd like to learn more about Africa prior to colonialism than what that section described, there's this tool on your mouse called a scroll wheel. It's really neat and you should try it! OTOH, if your complaint is that there's not enough information on the wikipedia page about what Africa was like prior to colonialism, this is why I made the caveat that "colonialism is really big, so it's hard to describe with sufficient detail all the things it messed up", stating that the Wikipedia link was just a starting point.
I am kind of flabbergasted by your comment because it makes no sense on several different levels.
Yes, in particular it appears to have been comparable to bronze age Eurasia. There were remarkably few states in sub-Saharan Africa pre-colonialism, even fewer if we ignore Arab/Persian colonialism.