Post #2533680

2026-05-13 12:11 UTC

Looking at how much conflict natural resource-rich countries (oil, gold, diamonds..) seem to attract, I wonder whether such wealth is more a curse than a blessing. Many regions with scarce #naturalresources, adapted &amp; perform very well. Some of the richest are examples (Switzerland, Luxembourg, Singapore..) Looks to me like the greed for them attracts conflicts: civil wars, invasions etc. Cultural, ethnic, religious reasons often just seem to be used to cover it. #Society #Economy #Philosophy

Replies (5)

@madeindex@mastodon.social 2026-05-13 12:21

Plus all the environmental destruction / pollution that come with the extraction & processing.

Open ##2777959
@angelastella@social.treehouse.systems 2026-05-13 12:24

@madeindex@mastodon.social It's a thing that has a name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse And yes, the problem these countries face is colonialism, lately under the form of extractivist industrial capitalism. Then they cover up their crimes with all that pseudopolitical bullshit, they cause civil wars and so on.

Open ##2777960
@lemgandi@mastodon.social 2026-05-13 13:05

@madeindex@mastodon.social And then there's Norway . . . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Pension_Fund_of_Norway

Open ##2777965
@chebra@mstdn.io 2026-05-13 16:47

@madeindex@mastodon.social yup https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs&t=733

Open ##2777969
@ILikeMyCoffeBlackLikeMySoul@mastodon.social 2026-05-14 18:47

@madeindex@mastodon.social Interesting thought. But, the three examples you took are very specific 'caus they got super rich thanks to finance and banks. In my opinion, rich countries are rich now thanks to colonization and debt use as a tool since then. Even now more money goes from poors countries to rich countries than the opposite. And since a country's natural resources can be use to enrich them and human force is a resource, the destiny of every country could have gone a lot of different ways.

Open ##2777971