Fred Reed explains that third-world countries are poor because they’re Half-Assed in Haggledom, and he lists a number of suspected economic laws:
- The easier it is to bribe a working-stiff cop, the poorer the country.
- Prosperity varies inversely with the time between beginning negotiations to open a factory and getting first product.
- National income is inversely proportional to the amount of trash in the streets.
- Per capita income [negatively] correlates with the average number of minutes by which people miss appointments.
- Countries that bargain have less money than those that don’t.
His last suspected economic law is not the kind of thing one says in polite company.