A GLASS COW ESSAY: Oily Louisiana ~Cain Burdeau~THE RESOURCE curse then, is this paradox – “the Paradox of Plenty” that economists talk of – endangering and often ruining societies and economies in possession of an abundance of oil, or a similarly high-value resource or commodity.
Power corrupts. And oil, poverty and war are the resource curse in a nutshell.
This is the fate of Louisiana too: It is oil rich and still poor.
The swampy wilderness that surrounds New Orleans is abundant in fossil fuels.
Unfortunately, after the destructive logging and farming, oil exploration came to the Mississippi River delta in Louisiana and the state was subsequently industrialized.
The tale of this Oil Curse is one of talking about what made modern Louisiana and also about why tying itself inescapably to the fate of “black gold” the state’s overall benefits have decreased rather than increased.