OPEC Member Resorts to Desperate Measure
This is what the extreme end of the resource curse looks like. Countries that make a living by scratching stuff out of their soil and selling it abroad don’t need to develop an entrepreneurial class. Countries that don’t have the resource bane must trust their own people. Guess who will take care of its own population better? Exactly – if you make money by selling stuff and not by taxing your population, your population becomes an afterthought. And look at it – most oil-exporting countries rank among the most repressive ones granting their own people the least freedoms. But they all carry the gene of self-destruction as resource sales breed incompetence which will eventually ruin the country. The most valuable resource a country has is its people and this resource must be built up and cultivated. Tue entrepreneurs are no slouches – they want guarantees for their sweat and labor.
