… it was a problem of permitting, by and large. Portugal isn’t as bad, mind, nowhere near but in the seventies a lot of places were designated “green belts” everywhere, so that to build on them (and you had to build on them, or you were stymied in growth) you had to know who to bribe, and of course have the money to do it. This isn’t the only reason why favelas end up housing even the middle class. There’s a ton of other reasons, including but not limited to land ownership and property rights, and a shit-ton of stuff. But permitting is part of it.
This is because people don’t view their public posts as something they do to make society better/serve society or even do a job, but as a way to enrich themselves/benefit their friends/make it easier to make money in the future.
Everything, from truly shoddy workmanship to rushed, corner/cutting work, to outright corruption comes from viewing a job not as something you take pride in and work to do your best at, but from viewing a job as an opportunity to enrich yourself and your family while doing as little work as humanly possible. In fact in some societies, this is viewed as a duty. As someone in comments cited there are places in Africa where locals can’t run a shop, because all their relatives near and distant will expect to be given merchandise for free … or even money out of the till.
A lot of this is because the idea of the individual as independent of the tribe and the family is a very new thing in most of the world. We kind of have a head start on it because we are/are descended from those who left family and tribe behind.
[…]
Also in most of the world working for money is vaguely shameful. Particularly so if you’re working for someone else. […] And even here not only does that attitude persist, but it’s trying to make itself normal. Particularly in politics.
So, take pride in what you do, and do the best job you can. It’s not just important for you, it’s a building block of society. Do the best you can, and control as much as you can, so maybe you will have just reward which is an incentive to do better.
This way is civilization built. This way do things actually improve.
Sarah Hoyt, “BUILD!”, According to Hoyt, 2018-07-25.
November 8, 2020
QotD: Tribal and post-tribal economies
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This is a very good way to look at this problem. As you mentioned property and individual rights are importent. In societies where they do not have property and individual rights, it is hard to progress both individually and socially. It’s really kind of simple. if you don’t own the property, any improvements you make to it, cannot be legally protected. It like building a house on somebody else’s land. You spend all this time energy and money and the landowner comes to you and says thank you for building me a house, now get off my land. So now let’s equate this to a tribe where nobody owns the land and the tribal council makes all the laws. This is how the Native Americans operated and why there was so much conflict and little progress by them. If the tribe can vote to take that house you build “of course for the good of the tribe” why would anyone spend their time, energy and resources building a house. So they built shelters that were easily built (teepees) and they could move if necessary. For some, like the tribal leaders and their families, it was probably a pretty good life but for most, it was not that great. If the tribal council can take the money that you trade for you labor, why work, just run for a seat on the tribal council.
Comment by Skip Robinson — November 10, 2020 @ 09:55