Economic development does take a long time. It is also one of the dangers. If you tell people that they can institute all of these economic reforms and hopefully grow at 5% per year (usually after an initial period of decline), that means that they will double their standard of living every 14 years. So, a poor country with per capita GDP of $2000 will take 14 years to reach $4000, and 28 years to reach $8000. In other words after all that time they are still poor. At the same time, they have TVs. They can see how Americans and others in developed countries live. It can seem very unfair.

If some general, Marxist or Islamist steps forward and tells the people that he has some secret way to getting to a better life, without all the hard work, it can be very tempting. From $2000 per capita GDP, it would take 56 years of 5% growth to arrive at $32,000 per capita GDP. The US is at approximately $38,000 now. But, by the time that the country arrives at the $32,000 level, the United States and other developed countries will have moved on themselves. In other words, no person alive today in a very poor country is likely to live long enough to see their country actually catch up to the developed world.

There does not seem to be a good alternative to this process. Those of us in the developed world stand on the shoulders of giants. We live the lives that we do because of the sacrifice and conviction to correct principles of those who came before. Thus, it is only fair that we do all we can to help others through the very difficult process of development.