75) Economically successful countries from ancient Egypt to today and their small subjects Written by Rainer: rainer.lehrer@yahoo.com Learn languages (via Skype): Rainer: + 36 20 549 52 97 or + 36 20 334 79 74

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Economically successful countries from ancient Egypt to today and their small subjects History books tell us that, for example, the Egyptians were economically and technically at such a high level that they were able to build pyramids, dams and moats. The social structure and the strong state apparatus made it possible to create storage buildings for food. Further, we learn about the splendid life of the pharaoh, clothing, medical services etc. What a wonderful life this demigod must have had if he was not poisoned by his political opponents or otherwise sent to the afterlife. Thousands died to build his grave and some of them even volunteered to be buried with this dead human. The life of the small subject was not worth a penny. People like the writer and readers of this article would have been sacrificed to this demigod and his religion without blinking an eye. And this is the question of this short article: How much did "you and me" benefit from all of this? Wouldn’t it have been better, for example, to live with the Libyan nomads, who were not so well organized, but who did not sacrifice one another to any god, or with the Phoenicians, who already had enough individualism to make it possible for a colony, such as Carthage, to become independent, that is, an independent state. Or Greece, fragmented into many small city-states, which was able to repel the attack of a powerful, successful Persian empire. Where do you think people were better off? The Persian king was so rich that he could have bought all of Greece if he hadn't wanted to conquer it. What do you think drove the Greeks to defend their individualism? If they had been integrated into the Persian Empire, they would certainly have played an outstanding role there. They probably suspected that this strong state would have crushed them over time to downgrade them to slaves. In such a pompous state, many have to be sacrificed so that a few can live well. The Dutch who rebelled against the Habsburgs, who were so successful in Europe. Even after the Habsburg Empire of Karl V / Karl I of Spain had to be divided into Austrian and Spanish Habsburgs, her hegemony in Europe remained unchallenged. The famous saying of the king "In my country the sun does not go down" reflects this situation. But what was the reality like for ordinary people? Huge galleys filled with convicts sailed the world's oceans, 100,000 ethnic groups considered unnecessary and disturbing, gypsies were shipped to South America, the Moors were driven to North Africa, the Jews had to leave Spain, and the Inquisition against the emerging Protestantism ruled throughout Europe, with hundreds of thousands of innocents first tormented as heretics or witches and then burned. As a small man or woman, one would probably have preferred to live in Lombardy, in Transylvania or in the later liberated Holland. France had risen to become a new superpower under Louis XIV on the European mainland after the Thirty Years' War. The power of the king not only affected the lives of the citizens, but an academy of the arts was created that prescribed exactly what a good picture or statue should look like. It is not for nothing that works by Rembrandt, Vermeer and their colleagues from Holland are more appreciated today. With the end of absolutism, the tide began to turn. As Adam Smith noted in The Wealth of Nations in 1756, the most successful country is the one, in which the participation of the lower classes is also highest in consumption. And this is obviously the case in democracies, when civil organisations in particular can control the upper classes and the various upper interest groups have to campaign for the favour of small voters. The lower ones must never forget how all this came about and they must be constantly on guard and defend these achievements. While at first primarily unnecessary, restrictive laws were relaxed to guarantee increasing prosperity, today the state is again trying to control the small individual with the help of technology. Hysteria and the fear of violence and terrorism or pandemics help him. But in general, we can say that we are on the right path because democratic countries are economically the most successful worldwide. Only where local "would like to be kings" control the state, the small citizens are usually worse off. Back to list!

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