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Manaoscola t1_iubsdg4 wrote

Reply to comment by Commubot in The Discovery that Lemons Cure Scurvy Caused the Formation of the Sicilian Mafia by agreea

The problem is when the central goverment becomes the mafia itselve

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tonipaz t1_iubsvr0 wrote

No the problem is when central government decides prosecuting crime is more profitable than taxing the transactions that are considered “criminal”

I.e. the war on drugs (still going on)

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Manaoscola t1_iubtgvw wrote

not every part of the world has the same issues as USA, some places the central goverment becomes an actual mafia and feeds from industries, sometimes even destroying them.

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Theban_Prince t1_iudrgn0 wrote

Actually if you read the research OP posted there are parallels drawn between sudden windfall of wealth due to natural resources with the existence of both mafia and corrupted goverments.

The issue seems to be not about "goverment" by definition, but the fact that the influx of wealth in an already weakend state will spawn mafiesque organisations, either in the form of full blown criminal organistions and/or corrupted states

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TurboGuyUndercover t1_iubu2sy wrote

You’re avoiding the point made in the comment

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Lone-Sloth t1_iucwf4l wrote

Because its assuming that only US problems matter while other countries are having a lot bigger problems than the war on drugs, like "oh no you can't do drugs legally" meanwhile in China there's currently an ongoing genocide or other countries where the government is tyrannical

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the_barroom_hero t1_iudzsey wrote

If you think the problem with the war on drugs is "oh no you can't do drugs legally" you need to learn about the war on drugs

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Lone-Sloth t1_iuhc4mt wrote

I'm just trivalizing your issue since you do it so easily to more important ones, obviously there's more to it, but it's still nothing compared to other problems

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knochback t1_iue37hk wrote

It's less about "oh no I can't do drugs" and more about "oh no, these antiquated drug laws are used to unfairly target minorities and poor people, ruining lives while not fixing literally any problem"

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Jrook t1_iubvwh9 wrote

Such as?

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Manaoscola t1_iubwba6 wrote

Argentina, Saudi Arabia, China, and many african nations.

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Jrook t1_iubz1wf wrote

What industries did they destroy by Mafia tactics?

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gimnasium_mankind t1_iucrqhu wrote

After many years of reduced growth compared to the rest of the world, one could say that an industry « has been destroyed ». The reduced growth can come from excessive taxes and regulations, permits, licenses, any kind of mandatory contribution. Contributions that don’t « come back » propotionally in services or in infrastructure.

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OuterOne t1_iuc9akk wrote

Send to me like Saudi and Chinese industries are going pretty well.

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brownpaperboi t1_iudlctf wrote

I think the above comment is talking about the resource curse, where governments essentially focused on supporting and taxing one industry to the detriment of other industries. Countries with resource curse historically have high levels of corruption and frequently poor government services since the main goal of government is rent collection. Example include Nigeria, Mexico 20 years ago, Angola, Iraq and some other nations.

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Lindvaettr t1_iudbfda wrote

Or when they care more about public perception than competence. Most people opposed to big government aren't against the concept of regulation. They're against poor regulation that doesn't achieve what it's supposed to and overburdens the people it's supposed to protect.

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