[DilipJ]

I don't think that's fair. Although I do think America has been built up thanks to the "Protestant work ethic", there are other peoples with just as high a work ethic, who unfortunately haven't been able to exercise it because their countries have been in flux over the last few centuries. Think of the Chinese, and what they have managed to accomplish over just the last few decades in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Shenzhen, etc.