Saudi Arabia and the Paradox of Plenty  What is the Paradox of
Plenty? It is also called the Resource Curse. Simply put it is
like this: A country which is very rich in natural resources
becomes dependent on these resources, and less likely to invest
in other things which might be economically important, such
as manufacturing. Countries like Saudi Arabia are textbook
examples of what economists call the ”Paradox of Plenty”,
or ”Resource Curse”. Such countries are rich and poor at the
same time. They show no or very little growth, they are
underdeveloped, politically and economically.  A 1995 study of
ninety-seven developing countries by the economists Jeffrey
Sachs and Andrew Warner found that the more important natural
resources were to a country’s economy, the lower its growth rate
was. Of all the resource-rich countries they studied, only two
were able to grow as fast as two per cent a year, while a host
of the resource-poor nations grew much faster. “Just look around
the world, and tick off the countries