Statism is certainly a major problem, but where it is worst it tends to be derivative of more fundamental dysfunctions. In my view, the Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse are Marxism, tribalism and Islam. Where any one of these is regnant, statism is a problem. Where any pair of these is regnant, things are far worse. The combination of tribalism and Islam, for example, is why the Middle East, the Maghreb and large parts of sub-Saharan Africa are such ghastly places. The highest-priority project of the civilized world should be beating back all three of these plagues to the point of insignificance or – ideally – extinction.

Jeff Wright,

Fiber networks are only reasonable in cities. Fiber is too expensive to serve the boonies and is incapable of serving any mobile applications. This latter limitation is why, even in cities, there are applications where either terrestrial wireless or satellite service are required.

“Shell-fare” nations are fundamentally doomed. All are Islamic. The Islamic culture valorizes warfare, slavery and theft from infidels. So what we have are places where all the scutwork is done by slaves or imported guest workers who are barely a step up from being slaves. All of the work needed to build and operate the oil and gas industry that supplies the money plus all other skilled work is done by foreign-born contactors.

When the oil runs out – and it will run out – there will be no money to pay either the scutwork guest workers or the foreign-born skilled contractors. They will, consequently, depart, leaving only the slaves and their useless masters behind.

The infrastructure that keeps everyone alive will quickly break down. My guess is that most of the citizenry will quickly expire of thirst, once the water stops flowing, before they have a chance to perish from disease because the toilets also cease working when the water cuts out or of starvation because no one will any longer be able to pay for food.

The die-off will continue until the population is reduced to whatever the carrying capacity of the land, in a state of nature, is. That won’t be many. Prior to the oil era, most of the Middle East was barely-populated desert inhabited quite thinly only by roving bands of tribal barbarian nomads. That will be its future as well.

CONUS doesn’t need their assets, we have vastly more shale oil and gas reserves than the Middle East does oil and gas in conventional reservoirs. That’s why exporting products derived from shale reserves is not a problem. That business is, in any case, going to be temporary, at least at current levels. The world will substitute electricity for most liquid fuels in transport applications over the coming quarter century or so. Long-haul air and sea transport will probably be the last hold-outs.

As for political systems, size matters.

Take a tiny Shell-fare nation with a handful of oil sheiks so rich that, if you spread the wealth equally–everyone is still rich.

Right now what is bleeding them are architects :)
They could have funded powersats, but noooo.

I have heard rumblings that Saudi oil fields are gradually giving out.

Oh, if only the CONUS had their assets.

We do export fuels–which doesn’t sit well with me.

I thought the idea was for us to sit on our natural resources and drain the certain nation states of their last drop, so as to remove their influence over time.

Then we’d be in the driver’s seat.

There could be a different reason they frown upon Starlink–perhaps increasing precision of already precise military assets. Starlink is ubiquitous as it stands. It exists whether they want it or not.

Starlink access is also an economic competitive advantage for nations allowing it. Outside investors are able to site resource extraction facilities, manufacturing plants and other relevant infrastructure literally anywhere within the national borders of a nation having Starlink access and be sure that there will be no telecommunications difficulties associated with such siting decisions. Not so much in nations lacking access to Starlink.

Starlink availability in a nation will also greatly facilitate the near-future ability of both natives and outside investors to make use of other products of the Muskverse such as Tesla autonomous vehicles and Optimus autonomous robots – more economic competitive advantages versus the non-Starlink parts of the world.