wealth and poverty of a nation (part 1)

picked up a book couple of months back (right now alternating between 'the Warren Buffett Way' and this one) titled 'the wealth and poverty of nations, though I might differ with David Landes's opinion on a few things but generally he makes a sound analysis, in his book he talks about the vast disparity of wealth and progress that one sees between todays developed and not so developed nations. Being from Pakistan, I couldn't help but draw analogies between his reasons for failure of the Eastern civilizations and the state of affairs in Pakistan, I will try and do a series on what I think are issues that threaten Pakistan's present and future in historical perspective (my opinion may seem effected in large by the book in question).