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Welcome to Keith's night. 
Don't tread on anyone in the 

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libertarian Institute. 
Here is a section from a why 

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it's okay to want to be rich by 
Jason Brennan. 

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Titled against the imperialist 
theory in the stolen. 

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Watch thought experiment you 
will acquire a fancy watch 

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because your grandfather stole 
it from someone else. 

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Many lay people philosophers who
write about global Justice and a

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Marxist indoctrinated historians
assume that such theft explains 

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global inequality. 
Do they think rich countries 

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became Rich by conquering parts,
of Africa, South America, and 

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Asia, they developed Capital 
because they stole resources 

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from those countries today rich 
countries remain Rich because 

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they inherited stolen wealth. 
Call this the imperialist theory

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of the great Divergence. 
For instance philosopher, Thomas

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passage says existing radical 
inequality is deeply tainted by 

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how it Humiliated through one 
historical process. 

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That was deeply perverted by 
enslavement colonialism, even 

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genocide. 
The rich are quick to point out 

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that they cannot inherit their 
ancestors sins, indeed, but how 

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can they be entitled to the 
fruits of these sins to their 

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huge inherited advantage, in 
power and wealth over the rest 

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of the world. 
According to this view 

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imperialist resource extraction,
explains or helps to explain? 

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Lane why First World countries 
became wealthy and how people in

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the developing world have become
poor. 

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Now, even taken at face value, 
even before we do any rigorous 

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economic analysis, the 
imperialist theory has some 

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problems first. 
If you look back at figure 5.1, 

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you see that after 1500, pretty 
much everyone is getting richer 

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or at worst staying the same. 
If Europe's riches were merely 

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the rest of the world's losses. 
We'd expect to see Europe, get 

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rich at the same rate, the other
places got poorer. 

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We'd expect to see income move 
around but total amount of 

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income to remain about the same.
We don't see that instead. 

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We see it more total income 
Europe gets richer faster than 

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others, but the others start 
getting rich or too. 

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So anyone who believes in the 
imperialist theory needs to 

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explain how European theft 
created wealth. 

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And made everyone richer. 
Perhaps the defender of the 

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imperialist theory would 
hypothesize that the European 

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powers were just tapping into 
previously. 

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Unused resources in the 
colonies. 

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They were cutting down forests 
or extracting unused gold. 

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The second problem though. 
Is that the historical facts, 

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don't quite line up with the 
imperialist thesis for most of 

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the Imperial expansion. 
Period Spain had the biggest 

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empire, but it remained poorer. 
Then England or the United 

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Kingdom, as you'll soon see that
is no accident. 

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Why didn't rush has enormous 
Empire full of Natural 

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Resources. 
Make Russia Rich the US and 

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Germany got rich first and then 
acquired Empires. 

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Switzerland got rich without 
having any Empire after WWII. 

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Singapore Hong Kong Macau and 
South Korea became rich, but 

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they had no Empires. 
Japan had an empire in the late 

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1800s through World War Two, but
it Didn't become rich until 

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after it, lost the war and it's 
empire. 

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The British abused and starved. 
The Irish, but Ireland, 

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quadrupled its GDP per capita 
between 1970 and today, and is 

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now much richer than the United 
Kingdom on a per capita basis 

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further throughout history, and 
all around the world. 

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Many countries have created 
massive Empires. 

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If imperialism is so lucrative 
and is the secret to growth, 

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why? 
The Mongol Kwang AB Assad Ahmad 

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Brazilian, Roman Macedonian, 
ottoman, Tibetan Persian Aztec 

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or countless other gigantic 
empires in the Americas, Europe,

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Asia or Africa lead to an 
earlier, great enrichment and 

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great Divergence. 
It's not as though Spain 

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invented. 
Imperialism in 1492. 

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It's not as though these earlier
Empires were especially nice and

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kind or as if earlier Empires 
didn't exploit their new 

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subjects and extract of 
resources. 

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What gives nevertheless? 
It is indeed true that the 

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European powers and later Japan 
engaged in widespread 

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imperialist Conquest. 
Some of the effects of 

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imperialism are long-lasting. 
There was evidence that when 

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Spain gave up its brutal 
extractive Empire, homegrown 

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tyrants took up leadership and 
control of those same extractive

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institutions. 
There is evidence that some 

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former colonies May indeed be 
worse off today as a result of 

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being colonized yesterday. 
Of course, the counterfactual is

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are hard to determine. 
What would the Congo be like 

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today? 
Had Belgium never sent troops 

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and with the area we call 
Brazil, be richer and better run

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today if the British had 
conquered the land instead of 

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Portugal, or if no one had ever 
conquered it at any rate. 

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It's clear that starting in the 
fortune. 

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Hundreds of various European 
powers, amassed a large Empires,

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they murdered oppressed and 
enslaved other stole land and 

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extracted resources for their 
Empires. 

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The problem for the imperialist 
theory though is that these 

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facts are insufficient to show 
Europe's wealth results. 

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From ill-gotten gains. 
Adam Smith's The Wealth of 

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Nations wasn't just a defense of
the institutional Theory. 

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It was also the first sustained 
rigorous economic. 

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Peak of imperialism, Adam Smith 
carefully collected data about 

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the value of the raw materials. 
The European powers extracted 

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from their Empires. 
He carefully analyze the various

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consequences of Imperial trade 
restrictions and examined. 

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How much it cost the European 
powers to murder pillage and 

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plunder. 
After all these things cost a 

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lot of money. 
He estimates that the Seven 

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Years War 1756, to 1763 caused, 
Great, Britain about A million 

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pounds while the 1739 war with 
the Spanish cost 40 million 

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pounds. 
In short, The Wealth of Nations 

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was a cost-benefit analysis of 
imperialism. 

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In the end Smith finds that 
Empires don't even pay for 

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themselves. 
Smith thinks it's a grievous 

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moral error to ignore the 
welfare of the conquered 

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peoples, but he chose that even 
if we do. 

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So the Empire Still fail, 
cost-benefit analysis, rather 

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Smith, finds the cost to 
Imperial powers in acquiring and

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maintaining their Empires 
exceeded. 

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The value of the All materials 
and other goods and services 

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they received from the Empire's,
Adam Smith argued instead that 

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the leaders of Great Britain 
duped their subjects into 

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thinking, they had a profitable 
Empire. 

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In fact, the British subjects 
were paying more in taxes to 

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maintain the Empire then they 
were getting back. 

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Indeed Smith thinks, the 
problems are even worse than 

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that. 
Part of the problem. 

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Is that Imperial Powers almost 
Courage in efficient production 

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methods for instance Britain 
restricted, Virginia's trade. 

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They were only allowed to sell 
tobacco to England. 

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The English might think they get
a great deal on Tobacco as a 

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result. 
But on the contrary it meant 

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that. 
Virginia didn't invest in more 

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productive methods and didn't 
have an economy of scale, 

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colonial trade restriction, 
heard England along with 

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everyone else. 
Imagine. 

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I pay a thousand dollars for a 
gun which are used to Rob other.

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But after all the robbing is 
done. 

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I only collect $500. 
Sure the robbery is evil, but 

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it's no windfall. 
I the robber lost a money on the

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robbery more recent and even 
more rigorous empirical work, 

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vindicates, Smith's conclusion, 
even if we focus narrowly on the

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economic interests of the 
Imperial powers and ignore the 

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harm, they do to those they 
conquer Empires do not Pay for 

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themselves. 
One might wonder then if Empires

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are such a bad deal. 
Why do so many countries pursue 

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imperialist policies? 
One reason could be, that they 

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were misinformed, just as most 
people are today. 

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They didn't really carefully. 
Pay attention to the data and 

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tended to assume the math worked
out. 

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But the deeper reason is that 
it's silly and naive to compare 

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an entire country to a 
grandfather, stealing a watch or

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to an incompetent Thief, who 
pays more for his gun, then he 

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gains and Theft. 
Rather nations are made up of 

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different people with different 
levels of power and different 

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interests. 
The benefits of the Empire 

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Building. 
Were concentrated among the 

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politically well-connected few 
such as weapons, manufacturers, 

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certain Monopoly, trade 
companies, the military, and the

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kings, and queens, the costs, 
which exceeded the benefits or 

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in turn passed on to and spread 
among the helpless hapless many 

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among the taxpayers forced to 
pay. 

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Pay for the wars, the conscripts
forced to fight and die, and the

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consumers forced to pay. 
What were in many cases, 

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artificially high prices, the 
stolen watch, thought experiment

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is misleading because it gets 
the facts wrong. 

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It's a bad metaphor for what 
really happened in that thought 

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experiment, you benefit from 
your grandfather's thieving 

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ways, a more accurate 
replacement for the stolen watch

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thought, experiment would go as 
follows. 

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Imperialist, Queen, 400 years 
ago, the queen of Spain sent her

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armies to murderer, enslave and 
pillage, the Americas. 

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The queen text, her subjects to 
pay for her Wars and forced, 

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many of them to die fighting 
those Wars. 

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The value of the raw materials. 
They received from her Empires 

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was less than what they paid in 
taxes and in other costs, but 

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the queen was able to ignore an 
override her subjects interests.

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She was a queen after all. 
As a result, the past citizens 

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of Spain were poorer than they 
otherwise would have been 

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perhaps though. 
It's harder to say the Spanish 

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citizens of today are poorer 
than they otherwise would have 

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been because they're old queens 
and kings wasted so much of 

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their capital and their people 
on costly Empire Building Thomas

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Posh assumes that the former 
Imperial Powers benefited from 

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their Empires. 
So he assumes that our current 

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wealth is Ill-gotten, but the 
more accurate view is that 

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imperialism benefit a few select
people in the Conquering 

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countries hurt. 
Most people in the Conquering 

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countries and generally harm the
people in the conquered 

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countries. 
This is totally obvious. 

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It's not like all these 
countries were wealthy and then 

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they were colonized and then 
they became poor. 

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This is generally a scam for 
socialists and leftists and 

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Progressive. 
Has to say, wealth is created by

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theft. 
The problem in the world is 

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there's not enough antifa, 
stealing and rioting and 

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looting. 
And there's not enough 

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government taxing the producers.
So, therefore if we want to be 

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wealthy, we need to increase 
theft. 

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We need to tax more Brennan, 
mentions n, a different part of 

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the book, what he actually 
refers to, as the institutional 

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theory in summer. 
He says rich countries are rich 

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because they had institutions, 
which Urged growth, poor 

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countries are poor because they 
had institutions which inhibited

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growth. 
So which institutions produce 

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growth. 
Economists debate, the fine 

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details of these questions. 
Nevertheless. 

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The basic consensus is that 
countries need a robust 

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protection of private property. 
Be open and free markets. 

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See the rule of law, enforced 
and D, stable and inclusive 

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governments. 
Countries, such as Switzerland 

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Canada, Denmark, Singapore or 
Hong Kong which adopt these 

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policies nearly always become 
rich, the countries that lack. 

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These institutions nearly always
become poor. 

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Thank you for watching Keith 
Knight. 

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Don't tread on anyone in the 
libertarian Institute. 

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See, Jason Brennan's book in the
description, why it's okay to 

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want to be rich.