“Europe experienced the enlightenment and industrial revolution while the empires of Asia languished. What accounts for this dramatic shift? I’m not going to pretend there’s a single explanation, but part of the answer is that Europe benefited from decentralization and jurisdictional competition. More specifically, governments were forced to adopt better policies because labor and capital had significant ability to cross borders in search of less oppression.”
Related posts:
The Man Who Saved Russia from the Soviet Union
Mises on the Robotics Revolution
Wendy McElroy: Let a Thousand Home Businesses Bloom
Your Right to Use Encryption
Guns, Badges, and Cartels
The Trick to Suppressing Revolution: Keeping Debt/Tax Serfdom Bearable
Stop-and-Frisk: How Government Creates Problems, Then Makes Them Worse
On the Rio Grande, Commerce Survives by the Honor System
Jacob Hornberger: Why Kennedy Had to Be Removed
Get Ahead of the Pack and Unload Bonds Now
Magna Carta, Subsistence Culture and Western Civilization's Future
2014: The First Year of the 21st Century Dark Age
Blind Man's Bluff: Why the Surveillance State Is Doomed
The Social Deterioration of Funny, Floating Money
Labor Day 2013: How To Get and Keep a Job in a Fast-Changing Economy