Ryan Mazzola’s Reviews > Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty > Status Update
Ryan Mazzola
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This book uncritically applies assumptions of neoclassical economics on every country [and every single civilization] throughout history and forces them to fit within their little box of “inclusive or extractive” institutions as determinant of their prosperity. It’s shocking how narrow-mindedly they approach their research. They hail political centralization and establishment of “good” economic incentives
— Nov 25, 2025 03:13PM
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Ryan Mazzola
is 40% done
This is an easily falsifiable theory that gets shrouded by the breadth of anecdotal stories they weave together. I do not think this holds up whatsoever. The Roman and Mayan examples they bring up on their own volition falsify their theory, as does the experience of the US, Somalia, and a few other island nations near the equator.
— Nov 26, 2025 01:47PM
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Nov 25, 2025 03:16PM
as key to determining a country’s economic development and pay absolutely zero mind to external political forces. How the fuck do you expect me to believe that once slavery ended in the United States we had established inclusive economic and political institutions? Hello? Jim Crowe? What about Latin American debt crisis as a direct consequence of the recycling of petrodollars through US banks? What about Somalia? How did they go from being food self sufficient and resource abundant to where they are now? Also it is incredibly unclear what makes growth so good for the authors. They ignore problems of distribution and how countries in the imperial core can have inclusive institutions at home ONLY BECAUSE they extract so heavily from the global south
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