Everybody has always been finding it out at all times. It is just that the particulars of who is the out-of-demand class/profession have shifted.

But my rambling point was rather that there is a disincentive for [the elites of] a petrol state to improve the lives of their citizens, as the primary source of income [for those countries and ipso facto elites] does not come from them, so improving their citizens' welfare just means less of a pie to divide amongst themselves.

I am afraid I am thinking of Russia too much in this respect, but I trust similar patterns could be found in other countries which have economy based mostly on natural resource export.

And a socialist system essentially converts all of the land and factories from property to a natural resource -- something atop of which to put managers, who will tap it and direct the flow from it.

But the incentives present in owned property management and natural resource management are quite different.

Kind of a similar situation to what, if I am not mistaken, was official in a number of countries some 300+ years ago -- France, GB, others(?) -- where you could (and were expected to) buy state appointments to important positions. Which would then allow you to gain money by exercising the privileges of the appointment.

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Agree completely. Was it Doora who linked to an anarchistic video about exactly that? I will try and find it later.

As for the state appointments, that could very well be the case. I am pretty sure that the real starting point of the British Empire was not just Elizabeth 1st and the occulted John Dee, but the use of the navy by capital brought into being by the Central Bank (ex-nihilo? ) after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 - what did Patterson say? "The bank hath the benefit of interest on all monies it createth out of nothing"? Something like that. So all this capital lent out as debt to discoverers, looters, capitalist forces that could reap rewards and pay it back. I guess the state appointments were a more formalised way of doing this kind of business once the Empire was logistically more sound.

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