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I often think this factor is vastly under estimated. The US geography is almost the perfect design for building a prosperous and stable society. A massive bread

by zmmmmm 6y ago

I often think this factor is vastly under estimated. The US geography is almost the perfect design for building a prosperous and stable society. A massive breadbasket of fertile interior flanked on each side by coastline with access to trade with all corners of the earth but still isolated and highly defensible. Every natural resource you could possibly need available in abundance without ever needing reliance on external countries. If you were sitting down to a game like SimCity and constructing a country you'd probably make something like that, but here it was "by accident" just ripe for the industrial revolution to take hold and transform it.

WalterBright 6y ago
Japan has none of this, and yet is highly successful.
- koreanguy 6y ago
  not really, Japanese have been stealing from western Patents for years
- fighterpilot 6y ago
  But it's not number one, perhaps party because of geography too (size of country, lack of natural resources, location).
  - WalterBright 6y ago
    Relative to their size, they have done extremely well. The lack of natural resources has not held them back, nor has the location, lack of rivers, etc. The feature that matters is a free market. The best thing a poor country can do for its citizens is move towards a free market economy.
- lovemenot 6y ago
  At a different scale and time Japan was indeed blessed with natural resources. In the revised edition of Guns, Germs and Steel Jared Diamond tells us that the "agriculture package" sent from the Fertile Crescent 5kya arrived here late: 2.3kya - perhaps 1,000 years later than expected. The purported reason: Jomon was perhaps the most sophisticated hunter-gatherer society ever. For instance, pottery was created by Jomon hunter-gatherers earlier than anywhere else. In part, because of the sheer abundance of natural resources in Japan, the Jomon peoples had developed a rich society that agriculturism for a long time simply couldn't compete with.

by zmmmmm 6y ago

WalterBright 6y ago

Japan has none of this, and yet is highly successful.

koreanguy 6y ago
not really, Japanese have been stealing from western Patents for years
fighterpilot 6y ago
But it's not number one, perhaps party because of geography too (size of country, lack of natural resources, location).
- WalterBright 6y ago
  Relative to their size, they have done extremely well. The lack of natural resources has not held them back, nor has the location, lack of rivers, etc. The feature that matters is a free market. The best thing a poor country can do for its citizens is move towards a free market economy.
lovemenot 6y ago
At a different scale and time Japan was indeed blessed with natural resources. In the revised edition of Guns, Germs and Steel Jared Diamond tells us that the "agriculture package" sent from the Fertile Crescent 5kya arrived here late: 2.3kya - perhaps 1,000 years later than expected. The purported reason: Jomon was perhaps the most sophisticated hunter-gatherer society ever. For instance, pottery was created by Jomon hunter-gatherers earlier than anywhere else. In part, because of the sheer abundance of natural resources in Japan, the Jomon peoples had developed a rich society that agriculturism for a long time simply couldn't compete with.