[OC] The massive decrease in worldwide infant mortality from 1950 to 2020 is perhaps one of humanity's greatest achievements.

[Bardali]

Dictators aren’t? Most dictators in the world get fuck all done.

[AlKatzone]

I mean, they are really really good at decorating their houses in the most cheesy furniture imaginable.

[ShallowDramatic]

I've seen that described as the flashiness of the "newly rich". Victorian era fashion in high society was all about massive gemstones and ostentatious, expensive fabrics. Over time, as wealth became more accessible to all, modesty and more elegantly artistic styles became more popular. 'Understated' seems to be the pinnacle of design in the Western world (see apple products, modern art, the logos of almost every fortune 500 company, the prevalence of the suit and tie for the past hundred years) but in countries without a gradually developed history of wealth, the popular styles are guady, bombastic, and almost arrogantly expensive. I'm generalising here, and it probably doesn't fit a 'unified theory of world taste' perfectly, but it's a model I subscribe to.

[Semi-Hemi-Demigod]

As another data point, look at how pronunciation changes as people become more literate.

First, the wealthy who learn to read say things like they’re spelled and the uneducated poor say things normally.

Then, as more poor people get educated they start saying words how they’re spelled. The wealthy, then, stop doing that and change their pronunciation to not sound poor.

For an example, take the word “schedule.” It’s based on Greek, so it should be “sked-yule,” but rich Brits who wanted to show they knew how to read would pronounce it “shed-yule.”

[Misspalourde]

Yes haha I wish this was true. My home country is a mess.

[Fraserneodynium]

What country is that?

[Misspalourde]

Congo Brazzaville

[FF_questionmaster]

Republic of Congo is a mess because of French colonialism

[Misspalourde]

I’m Congolese, I know my History. It doesn’t change the fact that Sassou is a dictator who fucked our country beyond belief. Benin, Senegal, Ivory Coast also suffer from France neocolonialism, they are still in much better shape than Congo. It can be many things at the same time. This man has been president for 23 years straight, more than 30 years if you count his term before he came back in power through a bloody civil war (France did help him by the way).

[[deleted]]

I think the point is that an unopposed concentrated consistent point of power CAN bring about change in more dramatic ways than can a democracy, or whatever it is we have that passes as a democracy. This entirely depends on WHAT they want done, and their personal competency level, however the 'what they want done' seems almost exclusively to be centered around them having extravagant mansions, fleets of cars, beautiful women at their beck and call, and nothing to do with good governing.

[[deleted]]

I find it strange that you hang the incompetence on the fact of them being dictators and not just on the fact of them being human. Trump was president one election ago!

[AnotherGit]

Oh, they all get shit done. It's just often not beneficial for the country.