ToW #19 - Article from The Economist: "A world of robber barons"

Reading Goal: Read an article of an unfamiliar subject. Read multiple times to ensure understanding.
Writing Goal: Try simple, concise structures for body paragraphs. Make sure that intro and conclusion are fairly strong.

    Unlike the robber barons to which it owes its name, this article strives to enrich rather than impoverish. It is an introduction to an in-depth series on the modern relationship between business and government throughout the world. Its author, Philip Coggan, is a long-time economics writer and award winner whose views on the current state of national markets would be well-respected. Being a part of an educational series, this article has a dual purpose: to pique the interest of the core audience, enticing them to follow the series, and to sufficiently educate those readers who are not so dedicated.
    But of course, education and persuasion cannot happen if the reader is too disinterested to want to comprehend the article. All but the most enthusiastic of economists would have plenty of reason to give up on it if not for its consistent sprinkling of satisfying tidbits and conclusions. Wasting no time, the article begins by unraveling a term that often evades definition: "robber baron". It tells the tale of landowners who, in the Middle Ages, charged unapproved tolls for sailing the Rhine. Once the reader realizes that these crooks were both robbers and barons, they continue deciphering the article with enough confidence to carry them along until the next tidbit. This same effect is given whenever the reader understands the concepts that Coggan delicately explains, increasing the chance that they will enjoy this introduction enough to continue the series.
    However, simple enjoyment is not what Coggan wants his audience to glean from his article; he clearly aims to teach them just what makes the business-government relationship tick. And unless a reader is as well-versed as him, Coggan knows that most need the theoreticals of economics spelled out for them despite their education and business interests. He smartly chooses to break down his topic with a series of modern-day examples: explaining governments' desires for corporations by telling of France's once anti-capitalist president who now cuts corporate taxes; exhibiting the conflict between countries and multinationals by describing a group's move in headquarters from London to Dublin over a profit tax dispute. Cases like these are what make Coggan's educational goals realistic to achieve -- without them, his special report would be in vain.
    In terms of success, this article failed in only one way: it attracted the wrong audience, me. While I certainly learned more about the modern business-state relationship, I am wholeheartedly uncompelled to read the rest of the report. However, I am sure that this single situation does not attest to the longevity of the series; The Economist thrives thanks its many readers, both economists and titans of industry, who are constantly enriched by its many articles.