If 'rich' means stock of wealth, then the present value of stolen resources (and labor, incl slaves, forgot about that till Louis noted it) is wealth that would not be held by the descendants of colonists, hence they would be a lot less rich.
This is germane to the reparations question. mbs ----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Henwood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, May 06, 2004 7:00 PM Subject: Re: imperalist booty > Max B. Sawicky wrote: > > >My guess is that the present value of historic resource > >rents (mineral, timber, land use) from colonial > >areas is huge. > > I don't doubt that about the past; my query is about the present. Of > course, Brenner disagrees, but I don't want to go near that one on > this list. > > Doug