[pasttense01]

Natural resources aren't that important anymore. Look at Singapore with essentially no natural resources, but a high standard of living for example. And the U.S. has strong natural resources, but they represent a fairly small portion of the economy.

[lotsofpulp]

A highly educated small island city state protected by larger countries due to the very nature that it doesn’t have anything to take is not at all comparable to feeding, moving, and sheltering 1.5B people.