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?? Russia, the US, half the damn gulf states seem to be doing just fine (maybe excluding Bahrain and Iraq). Very much including Iran, despite our efforts to str

?? Russia, the US, half the damn gulf states seem to be doing just fine (maybe excluding Bahrain and Iraq). Very much including Iran, despite our efforts to strangle it to death for fifty years straight. > I think Norway might be the only one that isn't a brutal dictatorship Just because you don't like a government doesn't mean it's doing a bad job at, well, holding a state together.

GeneralMayhem 29d ago
> Russia Totalitarian, and trending toward failed state. > US Not eligible for the reason I stated: the US economy is much less than 10% petroleum. We have a lot of oil, but we have a lot more of everything else. > gulf states Mostly brutal, repressive dictatorships (especially Saudi Arabia and Iran) - some are better than others, but the trend is poor. > Just because you don't like a government doesn't mean it's doing a bad job at, well, holding a state together You're moving the goalposts a fair amount here. The thread started with "good governance", and I said "well run" - it's hard to say that the bar for either of those is simply maintaining superficial order. But even if you set that aside, consider the famous quote from the Shiekh of Dubai about the fragility of the petrostates that haven't figured out how to build strong civil societies with their wealth: "my grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, his son will drive a Land Rover, but his son will ride a camel."
- throwaway27448 28d ago
  > it's hard to say that the bar for either of those is simply maintaining superficial order. Well it's clearly more than superficial or the state would be collapsing. Regardless, I don't think the form of the government itself implies any sort of governance quality. Both Russia and Iran are the subjects of such heavy propaganda I don't expect anyone to evaluate them in good faith—but I would certainly prefer to live in either place compared to, say, Mississippi.

GeneralMayhem 29d ago

> Russia Totalitarian, and trending toward failed state. > US Not eligible for the reason I stated: the US economy is much less than 10% petroleum. We have a lot of oil, but we have a lot more of everything else. > gulf states Mostly brutal, repressive dictatorships (especially Saudi Arabia and Iran) - some are better than others, but the trend is poor. > Just because you don't like a government doesn't mean it's doing a bad job at, well, holding a state together You're moving the goalposts a fair amount here. The thread started with "good governance", and I said "well run" - it's hard to say that the bar for either of those is simply maintaining superficial order. But even if you set that aside, consider the famous quote from the Shiekh of Dubai about the fragility of the petrostates that haven't figured out how to build strong civil societies with their wealth: "my grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, his son will drive a Land Rover, but his son will ride a camel."

throwaway27448 28d ago
> it's hard to say that the bar for either of those is simply maintaining superficial order. Well it's clearly more than superficial or the state would be collapsing. Regardless, I don't think the form of the government itself implies any sort of governance quality. Both Russia and Iran are the subjects of such heavy propaganda I don't expect anyone to evaluate them in good faith—but I would certainly prefer to live in either place compared to, say, Mississippi.