[magduf]

Also Germany. At the end of WWII, Germany was bombed out, whole cities were flattened. 20 years later (according to my mom who lived there in the early 60s), you couldn't even tell a massive war had ever taken place there. Some of that was the Marshall Plan providing funding, but the rest was a society that actually pulled together and got stuff done instead of being mired in corruption or infighting. Japan was largely the same way. Meanwhile, 80 years later, America can't even keep its bridges from falling down.