Item — HN Reader

> This, along with the fact that salaries are absurdly low, shows a lack of interest by the Brazilian government, people, and industry, in the development of science in this country.

No, it shows that the country is poor - the desire to pay higher salaries was always there, but it's hard. People in rich countries think money grows on trees because for them, it kind of does.

And this is why development advice from "intellectuals" in rich countries is worthless.

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As a Brazilian, I believe the problem is that we have a culture of "gratitude" towards the government. We quietly and silently thank God that we received whatever benefit and pray that they will keep giving us that. But a tiny bit of economical education, and an open eye to the frequent corruption scandals teaches one that there is more than enough money for a decent salary for academic workers.

The real culprit is the International Division of Labour.

Some countries sell primary goods and other countries manufacture them.

But it turns out it's the manufacturing industry the one that trickles wealth the most, raises salaries and improves education overall.

China knew this. And used all its non-democratic powers to make their country a manufacturing superpower.

A country that only extracts natural resources can't hold a numerous population. And if it does, a big % of them is doomed to a life of misery.

I read an interesting article once that mentioned, the worst thing that can happen to your country is that it sits on a large supply of rare resources.

You'd think it would make you rich; instead it makes you miners, and ripe for invasion.

The Resource Curse. It’s not a given, but it’s a dangerous pitfall that must be avoided. England had coal. Norway has oil. If you don’t have strong institutions, someone will take control of it, like modern Russia for instance.