[z2]

For instance, having a century headstart in industrialization and fast economic growth? It actually returns to a longer scale version of having accumulated wealth through working a long time...

Also taxi driving isn't exactly the most efficient of markets to compare value. London taxi drivers for example have a unique barrier to entry to become a taxi driver via an onerous road memorization test ("The Knowledge"), and that has nothing to do with the general British economy "doing something right."

[akomtu]

What headstart? Africa existed when vikings were roaming the European waters.

[kansface]

The industrial revolution started in Britain.

[akomtu]

Why didn't Africa start it a century before? Otherwise it sounds like "industrial revolution" was like a deity that chose to descend onto Brits.