Behind the excitement in the rescue of the 33 Chilean miners buried 623 meters underground for 69 days lies a mystery.
We saw close up the skills of the Chilean engineers in locating and rescuing the trapped miners. We saw the cooperation of the Chilean people in the face of this disaster. Yet, on the GDP-per-capita charts, Chile ranks far below most Western nations — much less than half the West European average for example.
Several of its neighbors — Peru and Bolivia for example — do far worse. Yet, one has only to visit these countries to realize that they are worthy nations with elite and middle classes equal to or better than what we see in many Western nations. So why the disparities?