"There are countless countries with both extremely high and extremely low tax rates, but here seems to be little connection in general to economic/social develo

"There are countless countries with both extremely high and extremely low tax rates, but here seems to be little connection in general to economic/social development based on tax levels." This is not true. If you draw a map of low-tax v high-tax countries there's a strong correlation between high taxes and higher GDP. A few countries have high taxes and low prosperity. But the one's with low taxes and high prosperity are universally 'oil rich' or 'gambling rich'. There are no countries with almost zero taxes that are very prosperous at all. Switzerland has lower taxes, but not that low. Same with Monaco, they have very high taxes outside of income. As far as 'nationalism' - it was more the fact that American industry was intact, and everywhere else was burned to the ground. And yes - 'the spirit' of workers and managers was very important, I would say Nationalism was part of it, but it was not the foundation. Yes, everyone was a 'leave it to Beaver' believer until rock and roll and cynicism came along. South Korea and Japan 'boomed' just like Europe did because they were recovering from a war where investment opportunities abound, and are obvious. China in much the same way. If there are still zillions without homes, you can easily build more homes to create value. No highways? Build them. Easy, no brainer investments.