(^408) THE WEALTH AND POVERTY OF NATIONS
enlightened ruler (despot), a wise man, a savior sent to waken Egypt
land from its long sleep. Some of it expresses anticapitalist, anti-
imperialist, anti-European ideology. Yet for all the misdeeds of capital
ism and imperialism, for all the hypocrisy of European exploiters,
Egypt's problems went much deeper. Too deep for even an inspired Al
banian outsider like Ali to solve.
Even now, Egyptian industrial efforts stutter, for reasons not unlike
those of Ali's day. Technologies have been transformed, and economic
lateness models tell us that newcomers should have opportunity and in
centive to learn and catch up. But Egyptian society and culture have
not changed much in those fundamentals that determine vocation and
performance. Egypt was not ready then. Is it ready now?
Nor have other Middle Eastern societies done better. The highest in
comes in the Muslim Arab world are of course to be found among the
oil producers and exporters. The others are "going nowhere." Even
among OPEC members, the torrent of wealth has not grown an eco
nomic transformation. A World Bank study of these economies with
the hopeful title "Claiming the Future" notes that as recently as 1960,
the seven leading Arab economies had an average income of $1,521,
higher than the $1,456 of the seven East Asian comers—Taiwan, South
Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. By
1991, the Arab countries had fallen well behind: $3,342 as against
$8,000. Today, the Arab Middle East attracts 3 percent of global direct
foreign investment; East Asia, 58 percent.^19
But do these Middle Eastern states need foreign investment? The
best comparison is with sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain,
cursed by easy riches and led down the path of self-indulgence and
laziness. So with the oil-rich. They have traded black gold for money
and sent the money back to the countries that paid it. They have pur
chased shares large and small in the enterprises of advanced industrial
nations. They have also built handsome homes, hotels, and palaces,
bought large, gas-guzzling automobiles (but fuel is cheap, like coal at
the mine), acquired properties abroad where they can shelter their for
tunes and permit themselves dress and behavior unacceptable at home.
Saudi Arabia, for all its deserts, has paid handsomely to import beach
sand from Australia. Most wasteful and counterproductive has been a
huge investment in arms, including weapons condemned by interna
tional law and treaties. Much of this, presumably, buys the friendship
of the manufacturers of these nasty toys.
These countries simply haven't developed an advanced economy.
nora
(Nora)
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