Cash rich, trade poor

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htlead/articles/20070213.aspx

"France has a larger GDP than all Moslem nations put together." Ouch. And as they mention slightly earlier, "While the industrialized nations average $27,000 per person in income, the Moslem world manages only 14 percent of that. And that's despite all that oil income."

Anybody who knows their history will be reminded of the fate of the Spanish empire. Spain received billions of pounds worth of gold and silver from the New World between the Sixteenth and Eighteenth centuries, and yet both the Dutch and the British empires ended up being better at generating wealth on a permanent basis than Spains. Thats because the latter were based on trade rather than plunder, and a lot of the Spanish gold went into beautifying churches, whereas the British and Dutch spent their money on more ships and bigger companies so they could do more trade. The latter model is the one by which all modern societies become more wealthy, and their lifestyles become more luxurious.

The ones who don't bother with trade and manufacturing, and spend all their massive cash injections on penis-extension Mosque building, end up dirt poor and not at all powerful. Come back to me in fifty years, and we'll see if Iran is still a 'regional power'. I imagine they'll still be riding around in donkey carts when Europe and America have manned moon bases.