To be more precise.....
I think the primary value of a country can be measured by the financial return to its current citizens/rulers/owners and their biological descendants. And that can be very measurable. Citizenship can have a valuation or pay a dividend and we can see it going up or down.
This is important. A country can stop producing kids and inherit all the wealth to fewer kids. Percapita income is up. But that's not good.
Immigrants can thoroughly replace the country. I wouldn't call this a success either.
A country can acquire another region or another state or merge. This is not necessarily a good thing. Will jews want to accept Palestinians as fellow citizens? Not a good idea.
A king can oppress the people and make more money. Well... Like Saddam? How rich is he now?
The people that let themselves be governed by stupid dictators will lose money. They will wisely come up with a way to prevent that.
A country can sell all governments assets and give bigger dividends to all its citizens. However, the valuation of the government itself will drop.
A government can tax too much or too little. Both will decrease valuation.
What?
What about other values?
What about liberty? If you don't value freedom, you lose both money and liberty. If you don't appreciate security, you lost both money and security.
That means liberty is more important than money. Right? Wrong.
And that's precisely the point.
Because you will lose money when you don't value liberty and security, a country wanting to get rich will appreciate freedom and security automatically.
It will be like interviewing McDonald CEO.
Why do you care only about money o McDonald CEO? You should also think about producing delicious burgers.
The CEO will explain that it's because he cares about the money he will also make a delicious burger.
A CEO that is too obsessed with making delicious burgers will over-allocate resources spent on burger research. Those CEOs will make less money for their corporations.
When that happens, fewer customers can enjoy their burgers.
A CEO that is obsessed adequately with making money will also make a delicious burger. CEOs that are obsessed with making delicious burgers will not necessarily make money and will lose both the burgers and the money.
The same way, if we are concerned too much about liberty, to the point of legalizing unvaccinated kids, we will get sick. Then we will lose security and freedom.
If we're concerned too much about security to the point that we don't trade with foreigners, like the ancient Ming dynasty, we will lost both money, and can't pay troops, and got swallowed by the Qing.
If McDonald's burger is not delicious, customers won't come. Hence, it's toward McDonald's best interest to make the delightful burger.
Making delicious burger can be a mean to an end of making money. It can be an end by itself. If it's just a means to an end, we can see if it's okay by seeing how much money it makes.
If it's an end by itself, we can judge whether it's a good end or not by whether it's making money.
Either case, we can see whether McDonald's delicious burger is a good strategy or not, something difficult to measure because delicious is vague, to whether the burgers make money or not. That is easier to measure.
The same way, saying immigrants are good or not, whether legalization of drugs is good or not, whether regulation is reasonable or not, is hard to measure.
However, good immigration policy will make a country prosper. Sensible legalization of drugs will attract productive taxpayers. Sensible regulation that promotes fairness and honesty in business will improve economy and income.
Corporations share price and dividend reflects how well shareholders manage the corporations. Citizenship valuation reflects how well citizens manage their country.
If I look at Syria, Afganistan, Iraq, and Venezuela, I can conclude that their citizens are not wise.
I think it's much easier to sell capitalism with this agenda than saying it's right or wrong.
I think the primary value of a country can be measured by the financial return to its current citizens/rulers/owners and their biological descendants. And that can be very measurable. Citizenship can have a valuation or pay a dividend and we can see it going up or down.
This is important. A country can stop producing kids and inherit all the wealth to fewer kids. Percapita income is up. But that's not good.
Immigrants can thoroughly replace the country. I wouldn't call this a success either.
A country can acquire another region or another state or merge. This is not necessarily a good thing. Will jews want to accept Palestinians as fellow citizens? Not a good idea.
A king can oppress the people and make more money. Well... Like Saddam? How rich is he now?
The people that let themselves be governed by stupid dictators will lose money. They will wisely come up with a way to prevent that.
A country can sell all governments assets and give bigger dividends to all its citizens. However, the valuation of the government itself will drop.
A government can tax too much or too little. Both will decrease valuation.
What?
What about other values?
What about liberty? If you don't value freedom, you lose both money and liberty. If you don't appreciate security, you lost both money and security.
That means liberty is more important than money. Right? Wrong.
And that's precisely the point.
Because you will lose money when you don't value liberty and security, a country wanting to get rich will appreciate freedom and security automatically.
It will be like interviewing McDonald CEO.
Why do you care only about money o McDonald CEO? You should also think about producing delicious burgers.
The CEO will explain that it's because he cares about the money he will also make a delicious burger.
A CEO that is too obsessed with making delicious burgers will over-allocate resources spent on burger research. Those CEOs will make less money for their corporations.
When that happens, fewer customers can enjoy their burgers.
A CEO that is obsessed adequately with making money will also make a delicious burger. CEOs that are obsessed with making delicious burgers will not necessarily make money and will lose both the burgers and the money.
The same way, if we are concerned too much about liberty, to the point of legalizing unvaccinated kids, we will get sick. Then we will lose security and freedom.
If we're concerned too much about security to the point that we don't trade with foreigners, like the ancient Ming dynasty, we will lost both money, and can't pay troops, and got swallowed by the Qing.
If McDonald's burger is not delicious, customers won't come. Hence, it's toward McDonald's best interest to make the delightful burger.
Making delicious burger can be a mean to an end of making money. It can be an end by itself. If it's just a means to an end, we can see if it's okay by seeing how much money it makes.
If it's an end by itself, we can judge whether it's a good end or not by whether it's making money.
Either case, we can see whether McDonald's delicious burger is a good strategy or not, something difficult to measure because delicious is vague, to whether the burgers make money or not. That is easier to measure.
The same way, saying immigrants are good or not, whether legalization of drugs is good or not, whether regulation is reasonable or not, is hard to measure.
However, good immigration policy will make a country prosper. Sensible legalization of drugs will attract productive taxpayers. Sensible regulation that promotes fairness and honesty in business will improve economy and income.
Corporations share price and dividend reflects how well shareholders manage the corporations. Citizenship valuation reflects how well citizens manage their country.
If I look at Syria, Afganistan, Iraq, and Venezuela, I can conclude that their citizens are not wise.
I think it's much easier to sell capitalism with this agenda than saying it's right or wrong.