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Comment by DaSHacka

3 days ago

A country with no borders is not a country at all, merely an "economic zone" that can be leached until dry.

What is the mechanism whereby an economic zone is leached, such that borders would protect it?

  • I don't have hard data yet but I'm pretty sure some cities have suburbs outside them, connected via road, that rich people use as tax havens so they can live near a city without being subject to the laws and taxation of the city

    • Right but if you go into a country then you're in the country, not in the outskirts. You still pay taxes (generally...), and, in many countries, don't get any social services.

      If anything, many formally-colonial countries are leeching off their illegal immigrants, not the other way around.

    • Countries are generally big and with cities on both sides of a border so that doesn't seem like it would be a big worry for them.