rainfall , and that its soils and climate do not allow productive agriculture . Others instead point to cultural attributes of Egyptians that are supposedly inimical to economic development and prosperity . Egyptians , they argue , lack the same sort of work ethic and cultural traits that have allowed others to prosper , and instead have accepted Islamic beliefs that are inconsistent with economic success . A third approach , the one dominant among economists and policy pundits , is based on the notion that the rulers of Egypt simply don ’ t know what is needed to make their country prosperous , and have followed incorrect policies and strategies in the past . If these rulers would only get the right advice from the right advisers , the thinking goes , prosperity would follow . To these academics and pundits , the fact that Egypt has been ruled by narrow elites feathering their nests at the expense of society seems irrelevant to understanding the country ’ s economic problems .
In this book we ’ ll argue that the Egyptians in Tahrir Square , not most academics and commentators , have the right idea . In fact , Egypt is poor precisely because it has been ruled by a narrow elite that have organized society for their own benefit at the expense of the vast mass of people . Political power has been narrowly concentrated , and has been used to create great wealth for those who possess it , such as the $ 70 billion fortune apparently accumulated by ex-president Mubarak . The losers have been the Egyptian people , as they only too well understand .
We ’ ll show that this interpretation of Egyptian poverty , the people ’ s interpretation , turns out to provide a general explanation for why poor countries are poor . Whether it is North Korea , Sierra Leone , or Zimbabwe , we ’ ll show that poor countries are poor for the same reason that Egypt is poor . Countries such as Great Britain and the United States became rich because their citizens overthrew the elites who controlled power and created a society where political rights were much more broadly distributed , where the government was accountable and responsive to citizens , and where the great mass of people could take advantage of economic opportunities . We ’ ll show that to understand why there is such inequality in the world today we have to delve into the past and study the historical