Our pockets and the pockets of foreigners

Progress is often understood as owning the latest products, wearing the finest clothes, and walking in streets lined with imported cars. But is a person civilized simply because they surround themselves with other people's products? Civilization lies not in consuming fruits, but in planting the trees that bear them. If we want to adopt Western civilization to elevate us to the ranks of developed nations, the solution is not to import cars, but to establish factories to produce them. It is n...