I am going to be that guy: so they take a country like South Korea as an example of fast economic growth, and wonder why that is. Maybe because other, already

I am going to be that guy: so they take a country like South Korea as an example of fast economic growth, and wonder why that is. Maybe because other, already rich countries like USA wanted to support them so they would oppose their neighbours with undesireable political systems? How about the Middle East countries like Saudi Arabia? Qatar? United Arab Emirates? Yes, this is simplistic, and definitely not the whole story. But there is no research that can consider all confounding variables, so it's going to be hard to trust any research.