It goes by various names: the Resource Curse, Paradox of Plenty, the Dutch Disease, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse

Finding tremendous mineral resources usually encourages corruption, collapses immature democratic institutions, and hollows out the industrial sector of the economy.

Nigeria, Holland, Congo, Venezuela, the story is always the same. The only country which has managed to avoid this situation is Norway.

If anyone wants to read about how Norway avoided this: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/99680a04-92a0-11de-b63b-00144feabd...

I've only skimmed the FT article, but isn't the simplest explanation that Norway was a westernized, relatively rich democracy unlike the other examples such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela? Yes, Norway wasn't as rich in 1968 is it is now, but the relative disparity between Norway and the outside countries which wanted to exploit the oil wasn't nearly as great as the other examples.

Thanks. The article was very good. You should submit that as a separate entry.

Done :)

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1434413

This is really a good read. You should definitely submit it separately here on HN

> The only country which has managed to avoid this situation is Norway.

And perhaps Britain? But that was before any country had any industrial sector at all, and the Britons used their coal and iron ore to start the original industrial revolution.

The USA also had/has massive natural resources reserves relative to its population size. Coal, Oil, Natural Gas, Gold, Helium, etc.

And all the rivers run in the right direction. In contrast to, say, Russia's rivers which mostly run into ice seas or the inland water bodies.

White Paper on plans to privatize Iraq's oil industry (dated but an interesting read):

http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/185/40...

Canada? Australia?

Absolutely correct. That's why we (US) need to go ahead and just steal all those minerals, to save the Afghanis from another couple generations of civil war and strife. It would help reduce the US national debt too, a win-win for everyone.

PS - Obama if you're reading this, I'm available for hire as PR consultant or Press Secretary. I'm that good.

Read DTrejo's link?

In fact, it's often a ticket to quite the opposite for the natives of the region.