This question <58|68> overall <63|65> Zaskar: <63|80>.

Question 2: Give examples which show that the wealth of a nation can be unrelated or perhaps even opposite to the wealth of the individuals living in that nation.

[64] Zaskar: An example that comes to my mind is Mexico. I witnessed, while living there, that indeed there were extremely (monitarily) wealthy people. Some of the wealthy people seemed to gain their significant wealth by taking advantage of the undereducated and underrepresented people. In many cases, it was in the best interest of the truly wealthy people of Mexico to have the underpriveleged class remain undereducated. In this case one of Mexico's factors of national social wealth is its human capital. Some individuals ina corrupt government gain from this national source of capital remaining unproductive.

Hans: This is a two-edged sword. Low educational status makes it easier for the ruling clique to stay in power, but it also decreases productivity. And such a strategy also creates resentment; a ruling elite which acts this way does not seem legitimate. By the way, Marxists have serious objections to the theory of “human capital.”

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