Aug 23, 2026 Features / Columnists, News

(Kaieteur News) – It is often believed, and has historically often been true, that developing nations struggle simply because they lack the resources to build the fundamentals of a modern economy: clean water, electricity, public infrastructure, health care, education and now internet access. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, though built for individuals rather than nations, maps almost perfectly onto this idea of development. Just as a person cannot pursue growth and meaning while hungry or unsafe, a nation cannot pursue prosperity while its people are thirsty, sick or in the dark. The idea is that once this foundation is in place, reinforced by a social safety net for the vulnerable, decent wages and an economic environment in which people can prosper, a second layer becomes possible: personal development. This is the layer where people are paid a living wage, have disposable income for leisure, and are free to volunteer, innovate and strengthen their communities. It is, in effect, the layer where a “happiness index” becomes achievable.

What I propose is that wealth alone does not guarantee this kind of productive ecosystem. Too often in developing countries, systems are structured, whether by design or neglect, to keep wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, while the masses labour at the edge of survival. A smaller middle class, fortunate enough to navigate the right paths, chief among them a solid foundational education, manages to eke out a living above mere survival: affording homes and cars, living just comfortably enough, if overworked, to consider themselves lucky not to be like “those folks” who suffer. And too often, we console ourselves with the comforting myth that people are poor simply because they have not worked hard enough.