Stable government aligns the interests of the strong and the weak, since they both want to see everyone get wealthy. The weak want to be wealthy for their own sake, while the strong want the weak to be wealthy so they can take more from them as taxes. Olson used the parallel of a mafia protection racket. If the mafia’s grip on a community is complete there will essentially be no crime, since it is in the boss’ interests for local businesses to make as much money as possible, so the amount of it he extorts will be greater. Crime is, for a society, an unproductive activity that forces people to
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