Oz Conservative: Did Western colonialism create economic inequality?
The defense makes use of GDP as a measure, but isn't it an unreliable measure of prosperity? (Certainly it is a bad measure of happiness.) What about GDP as a function of access and use of energy? What did the whites bring? Some would argue that it is a better legal culture that ensures prosperity, or a better ordering of the political economy that makes prosperity possible. Then there are the technological advantages of the West that were brought to other countries. Are these changes to the political economy sustainable? How much of this relative difference in current prosperity is sustainable?
Also, what about the continued dominance of "developing" countries by corporations (albeit with the willing cooperation of the elites in those countries)?
If colonization on the whole was unjust, why should those who see them as a part of the West stoop to defending it by pointing out its benefits? Can we just not admit this and move on with the conversation? Or do some think that this admission of moral wrong-doing or guilt would be a sign of weakness?
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