Item — HN Reader

There are some forms of poverty that are created by wealth. Poverty didn't destroy the environment; The creation of wealth did.

Virtually every productive activity has negative externalities, and to deny those is as naive as thinking of wealth as zero sum. It's not zero-sum, but it's not monotonically positive either.

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Poverty does destroy the environment. Look at the pattern of development for any country. The environment gets worse and then better because once people stop worrying about putting food on the table they start worrying more about the quality of the food they eat and the air they breath and are often willing to pay a premium (not to mention to protect their own property rights from polluters).

This is why East Germany was by far a worse polluter than West Germany, similarly for North and South Korea, etc. Thinking that virtually every productive activity has negative externalities may be true but should also take into account the much greater positive externalities.

Poorer people on average probably take less care of their environment than richer people, but that's not what I'm talking about. Them _becoming poorer_ isn't harming their environment. It's the derivative that's important.

Someone is becoming very wealthy pulling oil out of the Niger delta, but the people living there are becoming much poorer as a result. http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5524695-146/niger...

There are numerous examples in developing countries/dictatorships/autocracies where wealth is physically taken away from the poor - and where the poor have no recourse because of poor legal systems/governance. However, this article is about a man in Austria who had some type of business not an autocrat stealing oil and brutalizing countrymen (for which hopefully such a man/woman ultimately does feel guilt).

Wealthy countries become wealthy not by harvesting natural resources but by harnessing entrepreneurs and generating ideas. It's why capital overwhelmingly gets invested in developed countries and not developing ones - ie the returns are simply better.