The Rise and Fall of the Midas States

Abstract

The gap between the advanced capitalist societies and those in which most of the world’s population live continues to widen. Of course, many millions of poor people live in the richest countries. But one is much more likely to be poor in some countries rather than others. The gap in income between the fifth of the world’s population living in the richest countries and the fifth living in the poorest was 11 to one in 1913, 30 to one in 1960, 60 to one in 1990 and 74 to one in 1997.¹ The world market simply does not deal kindly with underdeveloped countries. The industrial transformations of Mexico, South Korea and Taiwan are incomplete. Although the first two of these were admitted to the OECD in the 1990s, all three are still the poor relations of the advanced capitalist countries. However, compared to most underdeveloped countries, they have indeed undergone massive industrial growth – a fact which makes them unusual in the Third World.