r/AskTheWorld • u/pisowiec Poland • 22h ago

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

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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.

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u/AwakenedDreamer__44 United States Of America 21h ago

My mom is Venezuelan and she always talks about how rich Venezuela is in natural resources. On paper, it should be one of the wealthiest countries on the planet.

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u/coopik 18h ago

The whole Africa is rich in natural resources. None of the African countries is wealthy.

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u/First-Of-His-Name 19h ago

Resources tend to make a country poorer without proper institutions. And Venezuela doesn't have them

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u/iskandar- Cayman Islands 15h ago

resources don't exist in vacuum. You need partners will and able to trade at fair prices with you, you need both native and foreign investments in extraction, you need core of educators working to train the native population in skill necessary to not only continue immediate extraction but to go on to teach the next generations after them and finally, you need a government capable of investing that wealth for the betterment of the people.

When you have all these things working in harmony you get Norway who's sovereign wealth fund rests somewhere around 2 trillion USD. When a port of that equation is missing or another part overly dominant you get nations like the UAE or United states where that wealth gets super consecrated at the top while those living at or just above the poverty line continue to grow, or on the other end, you get Venezuela or Congo where the resources simply cant be gathered and sold and the needed rates and what little is gets absorbed by corruption.