Why The World Sucks

A recent article from Reason Magazine on why poor countries stay poor captured something priceless; here’s the best sentence in the entire article, but you should read the whole thing:

The problem is that Cameroon, like other poor countries, is a topsy-turvy place where it’s in most people’s interest to take actions that directly or indirectly damage everyone else.

This is really the key. Freakanomics taught me this lesson; tracking incentives really does show you the reason systems function they way they do. One of the primary functions of a good culture and society should be to create an incentive system that benefits the group rather than hurts it.

Follow the incentives and you’ll find the truth.