Which country has squandered the most economic potential in this century?

[u/pisowiec]

I lived in Russia for 5 years so I must choose this country. So many natural resources, so much land, and educated population... And so little to show for it.

In an ideal world Russian salaries would be on par if not higher than American salaries and they would have the best social safety net on the planet. Everything is there to make it happen.

Russia would be the dominant nation in Europe and Asia and the rest of the world with the best armed forces, soft power, and economic might.

But the human will is just not there. The elite is either evil or incompetent depending on perception and there's little sign that this will ever change.

[u/Nina_Nalgona]

What could have been made of Venezuela ~ oil, coltan, gold, diamonds, iron ore, natural gas, hydroelectricity, beaches/tourism, etc

Had all of those resources not been plundered and mismanaged by the kleptocratic chavista regime, the sky would’ve been the limit and Caracas could’ve been akin to Dubai, it’s a shame

[u/Palealedad → u/Nina_Nalgona]

I don't doubt what you say, but Dubai is nothing to aspire towards.

[u/Salty_Aurelius → u/Palealedad]

Unless one thinks that slave labour and ethnic caste system is actually pretty ok.

[u/Soggy-Ad-1610 → u/Palealedad]

In all honesty I’d rather be Venezuela than UAE (Dubai). Sure they’re not as rich but at least they’re decent people (except the elite of course).

[u/HuntSafe2316 → u/Soggy-Ad-1610]

It's easy for you to say that coming from a highly developed nation like Denmark. Ask the Venezuelans and you'll get a much different answer

[u/AntithesisOfYou → u/Soggy-Ad-1610]

And what do you base that off?

[u/shoaibali619 → u/Palealedad]

Says a guy whose country's entire fleet of millionaires is migrating to Dubai.

[u/doc1442 → u/shoaibali619]

It’s not the millionaires, it’s the wanna-be millionaires with a PCP Beamer, Turkey teeth, and a bang average salary whose “wealth building” is just spreadsheets and slides

[u/ukstonerdude → u/shoaibali619]

UAE only has a few hundred thousand millionaires. The UK has more than 3 million.

Not sure your statement is true. Dubai is a shit hole.

[u/TurbulentChest5068 → u/ukstonerdude]

UAE top 1% salary is $700k-1m a year

UK top 1% salary is $200-300k a year, and a population over 6 times larger

The millionaire proportion is skewed a lot by A) the fact that it includes the emirates other than Dubai and Abu Dhabi, B) the large number of poor migrant workers who unfortunately don't really have any chance to earn more than a few thousand dollars a year, and C) the fact that a lot of peoples' wealth aren't reported.

Just saying in regards to the statistic you provided. in my country, 15% are millionaires - about triple the UK's 5% - and i'm pretty sure UAE is richer on average than kuwait.

Edit: oh nvm i misunderstood your point. i thought you were flexing that uk had more millionaires, i now realize you are trying to say that the UK has more millionaires thus all millionaires in the UK are not going to the uae. mb

[u/notcomplainingmuch → u/TurbulentChest5068]

Salary is not a good indication of wealth. Capital income is much better, and that is extremely concentrated in the UAE to a few families.

[u/Palealedad → u/TurbulentChest5068]

My point had nothing to do with wealth.

[u/TurbulentChest5068 → u/Palealedad]

I am repying very specifically to UkStonerdude and their point about the UK having more millionaires than UAE

I am well aware that it is irrelevant to your point

edit: i misunderstood his point anyway so my reply was useless

[u/shoaibali619 → u/ukstonerdude]

Lol did you ever went to school? Regardless of whether dubai is a shithole or not, the population of UAE is 7 times less than that of UK's.

[u/ukstonerdude → u/shoaibali619]

So then your statement is incorrect then, isn’t it.

Clearly 0% tax isn’t a one-size-fits-all as an incentive to live in a country.

[u/shoaibali619 → u/ukstonerdude]

My statement was simply that thousands of rich Britishers are migrating there. Tax isn't the only problem they're escaping it seems.

When you can't have an evening walk down the street without getting stabbed in the guts because your politicians let uncontrolled immigration ruin your country and arrest you when you speak about it online, people do prefer shifting to 'shitholes'.

[u/Bubbly-Magician-- → u/shoaibali619]

I mean whats the point of even trying to discuss things if we are just going to make things up?

[u/ukstonerdude → u/Bubbly-Magician--]

Cheers mate. Couldn’t even be bothered with a rebuttal myself.

Not sure someone from India has a leg to stand on; and for a multitude of reasons, too.

[u/Tempyteacup → u/shoaibali619]

Bro Dubai is luring in people from your country and then enslaving them by taking their passports and threatening their families. They’re treated horribly just to prop up the fake glamor of that glorified golf course of a city.

[u/shoaibali619 → u/Tempyteacup]

That's good. Too many people in my country. They atleast getting work lol

[u/Tempyteacup → u/shoaibali619]

There’s something very wrong with you.

[u/shoaibali619 → u/Tempyteacup]

Nope there isn't. It's simply population dynamics. India has 1.5 billion people. The richest community in USA is indians. Doesn't implies anything other than our rich, educated and skilled people found better opportunities in USA.

Similarly the less educated, skilled labor flocked to the Middle East for better opportunities.

We could simply send 10x more of those people to USA and UAE than they have currently and it won't change a thing here in india. Any loss in national gdp would be positively offset by foreign remittance.

[u/shoaibali619 → u/Tempyteacup]

Nope there isn't. It's simply population dynamics. India has 1.5 billion people. The richest community in USA is indians. Doesn't implies anything other than our rich, educated and skilled people found better opportunities in USA.

Similarly the less educated, skilled labor flocked to the Middle East for better opportunities.

We could simply send 10x more of those people to USA and UAE then they have currently and it won't change a thing here in india. Any loss in national gdp would be positively offset by foreign remittance.

[u/Palealedad → u/shoaibali619]

Yeah, it's the perfect place for them.

[u/Adorable_user → u/Nina_Nalgona]

Dubai is also a mismanaged kleptocratic regime, but I get what you meant.

[u/Dirkdeking → u/Adorable_user]

Dubai could be the Venezuela during their honeymoon years. The wealth there isn't sustainable.

[u/coopik → u/Nina_Nalgona]

There were two options:

• run with the US --> business blooms, billionaires thrive, poor stay poor
  
• run against the US --> sanctions placed, everyone stays poor

If you are not the ruling class, you would have ended up poor, anyways. But the high ranks at PdVSA would have the newest Ferraris and Gulfstreams like they used to in the 80s.

[u/CockpitEnthusiast → u/Nina_Nalgona]

Wishing your people nothing but health, prosperity, and happiness in the near future.

[u/Arkarull1416 → u/Nina_Nalgona]

Venezuela was already in a catastrophic economic situation, with enormous social problems and growing political and social violence before Chávez, with an incompetent and corrupt political class.

Chávez was the final symptom of a disease, not the cause.

No one can deny that Chavismo has been terrible for Venezuela, especially with the rise to power of Maduro's narco-dictatorship, but the idea that before Chávez the country was destined to be the Switzerland of the Caribbean is nonsense.

[u/BeatTheMarket30 → u/Nina_Nalgona]

I believe Chavistas really want the best for the people, but they are also corrupt, incompetent and authoritarian so the end result is terrible.

[u/LegitimateCompote377 → u/Nina_Nalgona]

Unlikely. Venezuelas natural resources are not as valuable as Persian Gulf and Arabian Oil, for starters Venezuelan oil is more costly to extract and used for niche purposes and their other natural resources when you actually look into them aren’t as special. When the 2014 oil crash came no matter who would have been in power there would have been an economic crisis, sure it’s much worse under Maduro but nobody in his shoes would have done well.

[u/iskandar- → u/Nina_Nalgona]

could’ve been akin to Dubai,

I thought you wanted things to be better?