Until recent history, the central state represented about 5 percent of the economy. ...and further, governments were sufficiently distracted by war … - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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Until recent history, the central state represented about 5 percent of the economy.

...and further, governments were sufficiently distracted by war to leave economic affairs to businessmen.

The contagious creation of nation-states in the late nineteenth century led to what we saw with the two world wars and their sequels.