Transcript A Development Riddle

A Development Riddle
(from E.F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful)
It was estimated that immediately after WWII, the GDP of
two countries devastated by the war, West Germany and
Japan, was actually less than some countries in Asia and
Africa then referred to as “Third World” countries. Yet within
ten years, West Germany and Japan had undergone socalled “economic miracles” while the economies of the "Third
World” countries had not progressed hardly at all. This
despite the fact than many of the latter countries had a
vastly greater supply of natural resources than West
German and (especially) Japan.
Write down as many reasons as you can think of that might
explain this “riddle” from E.F. Schumacher.