[Fishman343]

Suggesting that people living in a mud hut in Uganda can realistically reach a better standard of life simply through working, displays an astonishingly blinkered view of the world. The majority of people there don't have access to resources required to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps".

[Bostonian]

Once the whole world was living in mud huts. Whole countries must have pulled themselves up "by their boostraps".

[Fishman343]

Yes, they did, it took humanity 100, 000 years. I would like Africa to develop faster than that. Money expedites the process.

[TeMPOraL]

Economies before were different from economies today. It may be possible that whatever worked naturally when everyone was "living in the mud huts" doesn't work in today's globalized environment. And no, no matter how poor you are, you can't ignore that the rest of the world is much more developed; there's no practical way to isolate your economy until you get on your feet.