ClippingKK

凡是自己下意识加上去的"为了好意的优化"，将来都要回来看一眼。因为每一样好意，都有可能在某一个他没有想到的角度，变成一道十六秒的空白

蕃对帝国西北威胁这么大，皇帝想要对吐蕃用兵，张说就不断要求与吐蕃讲和。等到前线战事不利，张说干脆上表讽刺皇帝。显然，以张说为代表的贤相集团的思路很简单，不折腾就不会缺钱了。这些“忠臣”们的说辞并非毫无道理，可是从皇帝的角度来讲，这些本该纳入国库的钱进了谁的腰包呢？难道都给老百姓得到实惠了吗？实际上这些户口和土地都由各级豪强地主们掌控，他们蛀虫一般吞噬着民间的财富，帝国不仅要听之任之，还要为了保护他们的利益任边疆局势糜烂，皇帝又怎么能咽下这口气呢

British democracy was not given by the elite. It was largely taken by the masses, who were empowered by the political processes that had been ongoing in England and the rest of Britain for the last several centuries. They had become emboldened by the changes in the nature of political institutions unleashed by the Glorious Revolution. Reforms were granted because the elite thought that reform was the only way to secure the continuation of their rule, albeit in a somewhat lessened form.

While there is no political body in Mexico restricting Carlos Slim’s monopoly, the Sherman and Clayton Acts have been used repeatedly in the United States over the past century to restrict trusts, monopolies, and cartels, and to ensure that markets remain inclusive.

一个曾经在创投圈里广为流传的段子是这样说的：以前投资人对泡泡玛特的评价是——创始人学历平平，没正经上过班，说起话来表情平静、没感染力，团队里也没精英；上市后，每一位投资人都提到——王宁性格沉稳，话不多，喜怒不形于色，拥有消费行业创业者的许多优良品格

he set up extractive institutions to cement his power and extract the output the rest of society would produce. But even extractive institutions with central authority concentrated in his hands were an improvement over the situation without any law and order, central authority, or property rights that characterized the Lele society on the other side of the river Kasai. Such lack of order and central authority has been the fate of many African nations in recent decades, partly because the process of political centralization was historically delayed in much of sub-Saharan Africa, but also because the vicious circle of extractive institutions reversed any state centralization that existed, paving the way for state failure.

现在的唐帝国，距离安禄山起兵叛乱已经半年多了，各地部队都面临着失控的风险，尤其是眼皮底下的西北边镇精锐，哥舒翰甚至已经公开处死皇帝新派来的官员，皇帝怎么还敢对这种试探无动于衷呢？唐玄宗此刻能做的，就是趁着还控制得住潼关守军，赶紧命令他们出战，争取一举消灭洛阳方向的燕军，打通漕运线。只有漕运回归正常，唐帝国才有可能像以前一样，通过牢固控制全国军队的后勤，来约束住各地蠢蠢欲动的军头

The Bolshevik Revolution advertised its aim as replacing the exploitative economic system of tsarist Russia with a more just and efficient one that would bring freedom and prosperity to millions of Russians. Alas, the outcome was the opposite, and much more repressive and extractive institutions replaced those of the government the Bolsheviks overthrew. The experiences in China, Cuba, and Vietnam were similar. Many noncommunist, top-down reforms fared no better.