Nobody wants wars! There must be a better way to settle land/territory disputes like we see in the Ukraine, Gaza & Taiwan. History shows that these disputes are almost always settled by military might which costs far more than just the price of armaments when the terrible loss of life & suffering is factored in. A market-based solution would be much better…
Commentary
- Sometimes the world needs a new framework to think about things. Circumstances change, people change, and needs change. Unfortunately, status quo is often a deep human desire that reflects that we don’t like things to change. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! But, what about when it becomes painfully clear that things are broke? How do we even evaluate this? Poverty, insecurity & strife with neighbors are good indicators that it may be time to consider a move. Sometimes internal & external religious, cultural and/or political differences become too much to bear.
- In our own case, it became obvious about 5 years ago that a relocation from Connecticut to Charlotte made sense for a lot of reasons. There was nothing magical about the decision & it proved to be every bit as advantageous as we anticipated. We picked up & moved to what was greener pastures for us.
- We are not suggesting in this think piece that there are simple market solutions to overcoming land/territory disputes, just that it may be time for the world to consider a new framework in which market-based solutions should be explored first with military solutions saved for absolute last.
- Could a neighboring country offer to purchase the land of another country? As an example, would the citizens of one country consider moving out if they were offered $100k/person by another country? Many would take the bid & those that reject the offer could stay in their country which would have a proportionally smaller landmass. New destination countries may be very welcoming to migrants arriving with $100k each.
- While this conversation may all start with a bit of pie-in-the-sky hopium, the point is to change the way humanity thinks about territory disputes so that we can start to look for market-based solutions rather than always seeking to solve our problems with military barbarity. It’s time for us to grow up.
