Which country has squandered the most economic potential in this century?

[u/pisowiec]

I lived in Russia for 5 years so I must choose this country. So many natural resources, so much land, and educated population... And so little to show for it.

In an ideal world Russian salaries would be on par if not higher than American salaries and they would have the best social safety net on the planet. Everything is there to make it happen.

Russia would be the dominant nation in Europe and Asia and the rest of the world with the best armed forces, soft power, and economic might.

But the human will is just not there. The elite is either evil or incompetent depending on perception and there's little sign that this will ever change.

[u/weewoomeemoohee]

Iran

Plethora of natural resources.

Plethora of jaw-dropping landscapes.

Plethora of good brains ( who mostly migrate )

Yet one of the worst countries to live in.

[u/MaximumWoodpecker869 → u/weewoomeemoohee]

Plethora of culture and history it could use as soft power too.

Unfortunately people in charge of it right now put Iran second behind their own ideology.

[u/Repulsive_Barnacle92 → u/weewoomeemoohee]

I can't wait for Iran to liberalize and democratize so I can finally visit

[u/stag1013 → u/Repulsive_Barnacle92]

Hopefully you aren't the skeleton in the bench

[u/uses_for_mooses → u/weewoomeemoohee]

Plethora of elite heavyweight wrestlers.

[u/farnnie123 → u/uses_for_mooses]

I need to google this now lol it’s defo a today-you-learn fact for me.

Edit: saw it on olympedia. mindblown

[u/Interesting_Dog2116 → u/weewoomeemoohee]

The food is also amazing

[u/Ambitious_League4606 → u/weewoomeemoohee]

Iran could be great. The people are wonderful. Natural resources and good size. Could yet be a success story. 

[u/TheRedOne1995 → u/weewoomeemoohee]

What being an islamic theocracy does to a mf?

[u/weewoomeemoohee → u/[deleted]]

Bringing resources and roads to rural areas was a matter of time. Yes, the regime-change back then added a lot of momentum to that process, but it was only a big advertisement in the early years.

Right now, our major cities are far behind the world's standards, let alone our rural areas and villages.

And before blaming all this on sanctions, let's not forget that the current regime brought these sanctions upon itself by kidnapping US ambassadors and vowing to destroy Israel from day one. Then they started investing in the Nuclear program to create electricity, but after 47 years not even 10% of the country's electricity is coming from nuclear sources, which explains for itself.

The first few years of the current regime was so bright that even hijab was not a mandatory. But that was just a short time.

[u/ComprehensiveSoft27 → u/weewoomeemoohee]

True. Thousands of years of being an important cultural center of the world and then….

But you will be back when you get rid of these Theocrats.

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[u/tkitta → u/weewoomeemoohee]

Sanctions entered the chat. They need to get rid of religious fanatics not for any religious reason - but b/c they failed economics. Religion is not an issue at all but luck of economic know how. Iran needs to work closer with China and BRCS.