Developing countries struggle for more reasons than access to capital or resources

It is often believed, and has historically often been true, that developing nations struggle simply because they lack the resources to build the fundamentals of a modern economy: clean water, electricity, public infrastructure, health care, education and now internet access. Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, though built for individuals rather than nations, maps almost perfectly onto this idea of development. Just as a person cannot pursue growth and meaning while hungry or unsafe, a nation cannot pursue prosperity while its people are thirsty, sick or in the dark. The idea is that once this foundation is in place, reinforced by a social…