The Resource Curse, or Who Owns Natural Resources? – Philosophy Tube

Who do natural resources belong to? Why are many resource-rich countries so poor and what can we do about it? Watch and find out!
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Suggested Reading:
Leif Wenar, “Property Rights and the Resource Curse” http://tinyurl.com/q5jxnpo
Thomas Pogge, “World Poverty and Human Rights”

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20 thoughts on “The Resource Curse, or Who Owns Natural Resources? – Philosophy Tube”

  1. Natural resources are not the source of a nations wealth. Nations are wealthy if their people are productive. The reason for the resource curse is not that the dictator isn't sharing the wealth, it's that he can enable the people to be unproductive by paying them off with oil money. The path to success for ambitious people in a resource cursed nation lies in appeasing the dictator and not in being productive on your own. In fact, the dictator has an incentive to prevent other sectors of the economy from gaining clout because they are a threat to his power. The people of resource cursed nations could still independently pursue the kind of wealth posessed by their non-cursed neighbours, but they don't. Why they don't is what you'll need to explain to understand the resource curse.

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  2. estoy viendo este video para una tarea, y me choca que hable tan rápido y sin subtítulos en inglés si quieraaaaaa, ya me quiero morir :c

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  3. All ressources should "belong" to everybody. They should be used to benefit the whole planet, not just some random dude who was born near them or some random douchebag who ripped of some random dude who was born near the ressources. Why? As in all decisions you must ask what the agenda behind them is. In my case: A planet that provides a good home to everybody living on it, not just the ones born under the right circumstances.

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  4. So still completely on Imperial countries terms then? No challenge to the role the West plays in establishing neocolonial dictators to extract resources? Just ways we can profit and establish 'Democracy' within a western bourgeois standard?

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  5. What about the cases of unjust borders? Most borders today have been the result of conquest and in many cases displacement of native peoples. Herein, you could have come to live in a country unjustly, but might still own its natural resources in a so-called just way.

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  6. hi, u must learn a philosophy now, if any country is plundering the resources of other country, in past or present the same will happen to them in future, no one will escape this cycle, so live with what u have, but don't disturb the peace around the globe by looting others u will suffer, now ur development is temporary, sooner or later u will be looted too. if u pass love u will get love or if pass violence u will get it sooner or later so be aware of it.

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  7. With this logic. Shouldn't governments of developed countries be trying to promote confederations of localized consumer co-ops for all utilities? if the customers are the ones who own the water company in the power company, and the government then regulates those companies. While nationalizing natural resources. we could begin to resolve these issues in their domestic sense.

    In terms of international relations, I really like the ideas presented in the video. Although I am curious about how one might try to get any of this implemented in the current political structure.

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  8. Imperialism powers and multinational corporations. The tariff idea won't work because the ideology of these corporations, neoliberalism, opposes any government intervention into the economy.

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  9. His solution would not work, tariffs would be set by China as well, or worse (kiberatacks, etc). And who woul reprsent the people ? Any election ? Comunist countries kept elections, if you remember, and the party won … Do parlaments represent people's real intrest or are they filled up with enoughly clever people to manipulate stupid people to beleive this?

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  10. "who owns natural resources?" in reality, in real life, and not in our idealized versions of the world, those who own natural resources, are those willing to fight and die for them…if i kill you, i win, i usurp your position, i take your property, and vice versa for you. the owners of natural resources are physical or political winners. the owners are those who are willing to physically take them. as shitty as that sounds, it seems to be truth. resources DO NOT belong to everyone, because almost no one is willing to die for them. try and walk up to a gold mine and demand you get your take…you will be physically removed and possibly beaten. no one will listen to your claims. however, form a militia, fight hard and win, and all of a sudden the miners bow to your commands. violence is a fact, and violent men tend to get what they want, because FAR too many people these days fear that violence, and refuse to resist them. if your resources are being taken, then fight, or shut up and accept the new reality of being the loser, and without any honor in it.

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  11. A quick note on the idea of owning resources. I think we have to remember that resources are not "Just there". Comparable to the making of any other owned product, a level of effort is put into harvesting oil or coal through refineries or mines. Ethics aside, surely the company or government who invests in these harvesting tools and process owns the initial ownership of the resource. Then it is down to the sale pattern to decide who shall own it in the future.

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  12. Wait, wouldn't we just be nicking the billion dollars instead then?  I can foresee some nu-imperialism hiding in the requirements for what constitutes a "good" government, and Britain or whoever holding that money hostage unless a system like the British system of government was put in place.

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  13. I'm not sure Wenar's tariff proposal is really such a good idea for two reasons. First, while a tariff on manufactured goods will help makes of UK manufactured goods, it will hurt consumers of those goods by reducing competition and driving up prices. Second, trade restrictions don't have a stellar history as a tool for inspiring political change in other countries (e.g. the US embargo against Cuba).

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