The reasons that 3rd world countries are so poor is because of planned-economies and interventionism. There's no other reason. No single group of man was born with an innate ability to participate in the Industrial Revolution! Look at the recent economic development of India and China, they are raising their life expectancy not because they had some societal/psychological shift! They're having it because they freed their markets, which in turn will allow comparative advantage to best use their resources! Also, what Clark seems to ignore is the ability for man to use land to sustain his own life. The reason we have such high rates of poverty is because we have such low rates of land usage. The redistribution of natural resources through taxation would lift the burden of speculation off the back of the working class and allow markets to actually be free. Clark is a moron. He ignores simple economic principles to create an "interesting and politically incorrect read!". Dumb. I'm returning it today.