Resource curse
noun phrase
The pattern in which resource wealth can make a state less answerable to its people because power no longer depends as directly on their productive participation.
Also known as paradox of plenty
The resource curse is the pattern in which great natural wealth can leave a country’s people with less power rather than more. Oil and diamonds bring money straight out of the ground, and a state that can fund itself without leaning on citizens’ work or taxes has less practical reason to listen to them: the resource becomes valuable while the people become optional in the arithmetic. The book uses the pattern to explain the intelligence curse. If machine intelligence starts producing more of the value, the ownership question grows larger than who uses the best tool. It becomes who owns the source, who receives the return, and who no longer needs to be consulted.
See also Intelligence curse Commoditisation Trust economy