Oh, It's a Diamond, Alright

Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced literally zero economic growth over the past 50 years. The potential causes that have been forwarded to explain this include colonialism (or at least the after-effects of it), environment/geography (hot climates, the fact that a lot of these countries are land-locked, etc.), and government corruption (foreign-aid in fact propping a lot of these miserable countries up). It's an absolutely pitiful situation over there but there is in fact one wonderful success story; Botswana..................................................................................Yeah, that's right, folks, the country that was as recently as 1966 the third poorest country on the planet has seen a GDP growth of 9,743% (from $70 a year to $6,900 a year) over the past 47 years. One of the reasons for this is that Botswana has a rich abundance of natural resources (diamonds, especially) and, while, yes, I do in fact agree with that, please, allow to proffer another possibility. Might I suggest that the reason for Botswana's meteoric rise is the fact they have for the most part in their history embraced a free market approach. The Heritage Index of Economic Freedom, for example, has recently rated Botswana as the 27th freest country in the world and because of recent reforms has upgraded their economy from "mostly unfree" (they had a few hiccups in '70s and '80s) to "mostly free". Other economists such as Troy University's Scott Beaulier have pointed to Botswana's high level of regulatory efficiency and market openness, their relatively low taxes, political stability, an educated workforce, the existence of property rights (in other mineral rich countries it is often the government which secures the booty), low corruption, a sane level of government spending, and a tolerance for foreigners......................................................................................Compare these factors with the absolute misery that's been taking in place in neighboring Zimbabwe and the miracle of Botswana is even more amazing. I guess that when you're far too busy slaughtering people you just don't have the time or the inclination to worry about little things like a 100,000% inflation rate.